


Marauders reader insert

by ShadowsButNotDark



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Relationships not until later, sorry :/ - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-12
Updated: 2017-08-31
Packaged: 2018-04-14 09:29:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 28
Words: 53,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4559460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowsButNotDark/pseuds/ShadowsButNotDark
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Looks like there's a new marauder! *whoop whoop*</p><p>This story follows the reader through her years at Hogwarts, and the many years after that.<br/>She goes through the first and second war, first with of the Maraudest and then by the side of Harry Potter.</p><p>Current status: during the reader's school years</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

 

 

_“It’s never fun being an eleven year old. If it is, you’re doing it wrong.”_

 

 

That had been your motto for as long as you could remember. Well except of course for the tiny little detail that every birthday, you changed the number in the first sentence. If it seems like a strange motto, try looking at it from this side: all the eleven year olds (or ten, or nine, …) you knew were happy, but they were terrible people. All the others were miserable – and that meant you, though you tried to be a good person. That was getting harder and harder by the day however, as your regular name wasn’t (y/n), but something more like demon, hell spawn, or when people were feeling kind, freak. Yes, so much fun it was, growing up in an orphanage. St Michaels Orphanage for Less Fortunate Children, to be exact. Pfsh, if anyone was feeling less fortunate, it would be because of miss Helen Vanstout, whose life goal it appeared to be to make children’s lives miserable. Thank you, oh terrible writer for the cliché and awful youth. **(AN: I know I’m terrible I’m so sorry but yeah deal with it** **¯\\_(** **ツ** **)_/¯)**

 

 

Now, back to the entire demon/hell spawn-thingy. Since you were six, you had been doing certain _things_ when you had been angry. To some people (Helen) this had been a sign of the Devil reborn ( _‘Rubbish’_ you had thought, _‘If I had been the Devil, I’d already have left this place in ashes, you idjits*’_ ), to others it was a form of amusement. Something like ‘How many times can you poke a bear with a stick before it lashes out?’ It turned out to be many times, given that the only time you ever _had_ lashed out had been when miss Vanstout had told you your parents had dumped you willingly, instead of having died or something like that. And she didn’t even break it to you slowly, oh no. It had been something more like “You’re an awful little child, you know that? No wonder your parents dumped you here! What, you expected some sad story or something? They didn’t want you, so they ditched you the first chance they got!” At the time you had been staring at the blue vase on her desk, wanting nothing more than to smash it. Next thing you knew, the ugly thing flew across the room and scattered when it hit the wall. Tiny detail: you hadn’t touched it. Five minutes later miss Vanstout was almost drowning you in holy water in the chapel of the orphanage. Rumour spread, and ta-dah! You had your current reputation. And that only at six years old! Oh dear, you were bound to have a busy life.

 

 

That idea had never occurred to you however, until you received a strange letter in the summer of 1971.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *idjit: idiot in Bobby language
> 
> I know this is really short, but it's just a little introduction to what I'm working on.  
> Hope you like it


	2. Where it begins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> x Before Hogwarts x

“ **(Y/N)!** Where is that little useless demon?”

 

“Underneath the tree reading again, miss Vanstout” Marie’s sugar coated voice answered.

 

“Thank you, my dear child.”

 

You were smart enough to know that whenever you heard this you’d better scramble to your feet. Otherwise Helen would start screaming again that you should answer when called and were a terrible child, etcetera.

 

“I’m over here, miss” you called as you closed your book and got up.

 

“My office, now” she snarled. That was the first indication that something was off; she never addressed you without using another insult. “Sit down” she said once you arrived. You noticed she looked paler than usual. She flung a letter at you. “What’s this?” she demanded.

 

“I’d say it’s a letter miss,” you responded, “however I have the idea you already knew that.”

 

“Enough with the arrogance, freak –” _ah, there’s the insult_ “- and just read it.”

 

It was a yellowish envelope, with green ink on it, clearly saying:

 

                 _Miss (f/i). (l/n)_  
                Chamber on the east side  
                St Michael’s Orphanage for less fortunate children  
                Watford

 

A strange feeling washed over you. You’d never received a letter before, and hadn’t expect to either. Turning it over, you saw that it had already been opened. You felt a pair of angry eyes on you as you took out two pieces of the same old paper as the envelope. Both of them had the same big heading:

 

                 _Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry_

 

 _‘Is this some kind of strange joke?’_ you thought. Scanning the piece of paper you read:

 

                 _Dear miss (l/n)_  
                We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all __necessary books and equipment. Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.  
                Yours sincerely,  
                Minerva McGonagall  
                Deputy headmistress.

 

You reread the letter a couple of times, and came to a single conclusion; it was indeed a joke.

 

“Very funny” you said.

 

“It’s not a joke” came the short reply. She still looked angry when you looked up, so you decided to lower your gaze to the paper again. Gaining a bit of hope, you thought: _‘But if it’s a joke, why would she bother opening the letter, if she already knew what was inside? It could be possible that she’s telling the truth and that this is real. It would explain a lot! Maybe I can finally get out of here –’_

 

“You’re not going.”

 

You blinked and shot your gaze back up at her. “Sorry?”

 

“I said: you’re not going.”

 

“But- But-“

 

“No buts” she interrupted. “I’m not letting you go to a school where you can train all those demon powers of yours.”

 

“But that’s not fair!” you exclaimed. “C’mon, look at it from the bright side: you’ll be rid of me for a big part of the year! This is a win-win situation here!”

 

She looked like she was considering it – or at least, pretended to -  but then resolutely shook her head. “No. It’s the right thing to do, keeping you here. I’m not going to let your powers get any stronger, even if it’s harder for me.”

 

‘ _Oh, so she’s doing this out of nobility now, is she?_ ´ you thought angrily.

 

You opened your mouth to speak again, but she interrupted you before you could even make a sound. “That is final!”

 

With the letter still clutched tightly in your hands you leapt off your seat and ran back into the hall, passing hostile faces as you sprinted towards your room.

 

“One day” you muttered under your breath as you slammed the door shut behind you, “I’m going to be better than all of them. We’ll see who’ll be laughing then!” You fell down on your bed, held the letter tight to your chest, and started to think.

 

 _‘Tonight, when it’s dark and everyone’s asleep…’_ But your thoughts were interrupted by a voice in the back of your head. _‘But what if it’s a joke, and the letter isn’t even real?’ ‘Then so be it’_ You thought resolutely. _‘This is my only chance of getting out of here, and you can be damn sure I’m going to take it.’_

 

~Time skip brought to you by Crowley & Co, where all your wishes may come true for 10 years~

 

You had spent the rest of the day sobbing (read: planning) in your room, and finally came back out at 2 am. With a backpack on your back and an unfortunately empty stomach you snuck into the kitchen. Firstly you ‘borrowed’ some apples, then pulled out a chair and dragged it across the hallway. You were lucky that miss Vanstout slept on the second floor, so that there was an entire floor of sleeping children between her and you on the ground floor. **(AN: Where I come from we count ground floor, first floor, second floor, etc. My apologies if it’s different than what you’re used to :/)** when you stood in front of miss Vanstout’s office you didn’t have to try to open the door to know that it was locked. Instead, you placed the chair in front of the door, climbed on, and felt along the upper side of the doorframe with your fingers. (Curse you and your tippy-toe tallness.) When you felt something cool against your fingers, a big smile broke out on your face. You hadn’t been sure the key was there, but Glenn, another kid at the orphanage and two years older than you, had once boasted about how he had managed to break into the office and steal some money. You had heard every detail and remembered the experience very well, given that miss Vanstout had blamed you for everything, despite you pointing out that Glenn was the one with new sneakers.

 

Now, back to your current business. You had grabbed the key and opened the door, and were now walking inside. _‘Okay, it should be in her desk, somewhere on the right side’_ you thought. Your heart leapt in your chest when you saw the little grey money box inside her drawer. _‘Please don’t let it be locked, please don’t let it be locked, please don’t let it be- Damn.’_ It was locked. _‘Well, I can’t just take the entire box, even I have my limits.’_ Feeling around every edge of the desk, you hoped you’d find another key. Luckily you did, making a mental not to never hide your keys in such obvious places. You opened the box and took out 50 pounds, afraid to take any more. As fast as you could you stuffed everything inside your backpack and hurried off towards the front door. That one was locked too, but the window next to it was easy enough to wrench open. Once you had crawled through, you ran as fast and as far as you could, away from the orphanage. You were finally free from that place, and you weren’t planning on going back anytime soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own anything, and took some parts literally from the book (in this case, the letter).  
> I don't own you either, but I'd say that's kind of obvious.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed! :)


	3. Let's start it with a bang

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> x Before Hogwarts x

The longer you ran, the more concerned you got. You had been reckless, and had been so focussed on getting out that you didn’t know what to do next. You took out the letter again to read everything once more, but this time you focussed on the second letter. It was a list of equipment needed in the first year, but you couldn’t read it properly because it was too dark. Looking around, you ran to a street lantern, and tried to read it under there. You held up the piece of parchment in the hope of getting more light, but as you read it you saw that there was no extra information on how to get all this stuff.

 

 _‘Well, that’s nice’_ you thought angrily, _‘sure, let’s tell her she’s a witch, but any further help-‘_

 

BANG

 

You yelped and fell backwards as a large bus appeared out of nowhere, and suddenly stopped in front of you.

 

“Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard” a man said. He seemed to be in his late thirties, and was wearing glasses. “Just stick out your wand hand, step on board and we can take you anywhere you want to go. My name is Ernie Prang, and –” he suddenly stopped, seeing you lying on the floor, looking up at him with big eyes. 

 

 _‘So it_ is _real’_ you thought.

 

“Erm, lassie, are you alright there?”

 

“What? Oh, yeah, I just fell over. Didn’t really expect a big bus to turn up like that.”

 

“Oh, so you didn’t call us?” he said, sounding rather disappointed. 

 

“Of course I did! Kind of. Maybe? Okay, to be honest, I didn’t, but I _really_ could use some help. You see, I need all this stuff –” you showed him the list “- but I don’t really know where I can buy it.”

 

“Well, in London, o’ course!” he exclaimed happily.

 

“London?”

 

“Yeah, sure! Diagon Alley, teh be precise.”

 

“That’s – wow – that’s great! Can you take me there?”

 

“We can drop you off jus’ outside the Leaky Cauldron.” Looking at the bewildered look on your face he continued: “It’s a lil’ pub tha’ leads to it.”

 

“Oh, okay, that would be wonderful!”

 

“Well, hop on board then, I’ll just give you this bed here, it gives yeh a nice view.”

 

Your eyes widened once more as you stepped inside. Instead of having seats like a normal bus, this one was filled with beds, with in some of them a witch or wizard. 

 

As you sat down on the one he pointed out, right behind the driver’s seat, Ernie said: “That’ll be fifteen Sickles then, please.”

 

The smile was quickly wiped off your face as he said this. “I’m sorry?” you squeaked, “What are Sickles?”

 

“Oh dear” he huffed, “that’s wizarding money. You haven’ got those?”

 

You shook your head, gaze (and mood) dropping to the floor. “I’m sorry” you muttered.

 

He sighed, and said: “I’ll see wha’ I can do, but I ain’t making any promises.”

 

He walked to the driver’s seat, and talked in a hushed tone with the driver. _‘What did I even expect, that it would be this easy? It’s never like that.’_ Lost in your thoughts, you didn’t notice Ernie standing in front of you again until he cleared his throat.

 

“So, I’ve got some good news, and I’ve got some bad. The good news is that we – and by ‘we’ I mean the driver – will allow you to drive along. The bad news is tha’ I remember faces, an’ tha’ when we see you again, we expect you to pay them fifteen Sickles. Deal?”

 

“Yes, yes, of course, thank you!” you exclaimed happily, and jumped to your feet to give him a hug. 

 

Laughing slightly and closing his arms around you, he said: “That’s alright lassie, jus’ do yer best in school, yeah?”

 

“I will” you said as you sat back down.

 

“Promise?”

 

“Promise.”

 

“Good. Now hold on tight, things might get a lil’ bumpy along the way.”

 

That had been a huge understatement. Shaken up and nauseous, you had arrived in London, in front of a tiny little place that most people missed when they walked by. Grabbing your backpack you stood up.

 

“Well, here we are” Ernie said, “the Leaky Cauldron. Jus’ ask the person behind the tap how you can get teh Diagon Alley. They can help yeh. Good luck, lassie.”

 

“Thanks Ernie” you said, hugging him again. “Oh, my name is (y/n), by the way.”

 

“Nice teh meet yeh” he smiled.

 

“Bye! Oh, and thank you too, sir!” you said to the driver as you passed him. He simply waved at you, and the moment your feet hit the sidewalk, the bus disappeared again with a loud BANG.

 

Taking a deep breath, you opened the door in front of you, and immediately realised that this wasn’t exactly what you would call a nice place. Strange looking people – witches and wizards, no doubt – were sitting here and there, some of them talking in low voices, the others not talking at all. Behind the bar there was a well-shaped woman cleaning some glasses with a towel, and remembering what Ernie had said, you walked over to her.

 

“Ehm, e-excuse me?”

 

The woman looked you up and down, and said: “How can I help you dear?”

 

“I’d like to go to Diagon Alley, and a- a friend said I had to come here. Can you m- maybe help me? Please?”

 

“You’re new here?” she asked after a short pause.

 

“Yes ma’am.”

 

“No wand yet either?”

 

“No ma’am.”

 

“Hm. Normally you need one to get in, but I guess I can open the gate for you. Do you have any proof that you’re a witch? We can’t have any muggles wandering around in Diagon Alley, if you know what I mean.”

 

You quickly took the letter out of your backpack and showed it to her. “I’m sorry, but what are muggles?”

 

“Non-magical folk” she said while she quickly scanned the paper. “All right, this seems to be in order. You can follow me.”

 

She guided you through a back door while you put your letter away again, leading you into a small courtyard. “Once you got your wand, you can just go in by yourself. Just count from the trashcan; three up, and two across. Tap that brick with your wand, and –” she tapped the brick, and suddenly the wall opened, leading into a street with all kinds of shops. “- voilà, Diagon Alley.”

 

“Thank you ma’am” you smiled up at her.

 

“No problem dear. I have to say, you did come early though. Term doesn’t start for another five weeks and a half.”

 

“Yeah, I know. I just didn’t want to postpone anything, if I do I always wait until the very last moment” you lied sheepishly. “Oh, and I have just one little question” you suddenly remembered. “Where can I trade muggle money for wizarding money? Is there a bank or something?”

 

“Sure there is. Just over there” she pointed to a large building ahead. “That’s Gringotts wizarding Bank, the safest place in the world. When you go, make sure not to anger the creatures that work there. They’re called goblins, and aren’t exactly the nicest kind.”

 

“Okay, I’ll make sure to remember that. Thank you!” you waved as you walked away. She waved back, turned around and disappeared from your sight as the wall closed behind her. 

 

Looking around the street, you saw a lot of shops that would only exist in your dreams. Of some of them you didn’t even know what they actually sold. Your eyes soon landed on the large building again, and you walked straight towards it. Going through the huge front doors, you arrived in a great marble hall. Big chandeliers hung from the ceiling, and desks were placed along the room in a U-shape. Behind every one there was seated what you guessed was a goblin, and walking straight ahead, you approached the one in the middle. 

 

“H-hello?” you silently asked. The little creature didn’t acknowledge your presence. “I- uh, I’d like to trade my money? Fifty pounds?” At this, you did get a reaction. Little eyes peered at you from behind their glasses, and a knobbly hand with long nails extended towards you. Gulping, you handed over the bills and watched as he (you thought it was a he) inspected them.

 

These seem to be in order” his screechy voice answered. “You’ll get ten galleons for those.”

 

“T-ten? That’s all? Will I be able to buy all my school equipment with that?”

 

“Certainly not. You’d need around seventy Galleons for everything. I’m assuming you aren’t familiar with our currency system?” he said as he handed over a little stack of golden coins.

 

“No, I don’t” you muttered.

 

“Well, there are seventeen Silver Sickles to one Galleon, and 29 Knuts to a Sickle. So that makes 493 Knuts to a Galleon. Got it?”

 

“Seventeen to a Galleon, 29 to a Sickle… Got it.” You said.

 

“Very well. Have a good day” he said, and turned back to whatever he had been working on.

 

“Yeah… You too” you said, and slumped towards the exit. You stuffed the coins in your pocket, and walked outside with your head hanging low. This made that you didn’t see the boy in front of you until you were both on the ground with his stuff sprawled out around you.

 

“Oh God, I’m so sorry-”

 

“No, It’s okay, I should have watched where I was going-”

 

“Yeah, me too. Here, let me help you with those.”

 

After a minute of random apologies and scrambling for books, you both stood up. Handing over his stuff, you got to see him properly. He had light brown hair and green eyes, and was rather pale. Extending his hand, he introduced himself.

 

“Remus Lupin.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own anything, and took some parts literally from the book (in this case, the knights bus introduction).  
> I don't own you either, but I'd say that's kind of obvious.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed! :)


	4. Almost there

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> x Before Hogwarts x

“Remus Lupin.”

 

“(y/n) (l/n)” you introduced yourself as you shook his extended hand.

 

“So… You’re going to Hogwarts too?” he asked.

 

“Yeah, I’m starting my first year there. You?”

 

“Me too. I have to say, I thought I’d be the only one that’d be here this early.”

 

“Yeah, well, I thought It would be better to get everything as fast as possible, instead of postponing everything to the last week.”

 

He sniggered. “Yeah, my parents were thinking the exact same thing.” Looking around curiously she asked: “Where are yours anyway?”

 

“Oh, they – uhm…” You didn’t exactly feel like telling everyone you didn’t have any parents. Luckily you were interrupted by a woman calling the boy.

 

“Remus, are you coming? We still have loads to do! We might have your wand and your books, but we still need all the rest!”

 

“Coming, mum!” he called before turning back to you. “Nice meeting you, (y/n). See you at school!”

 

“Yeah, you too. Bye!” You waved at him as he walked away, watching him disappear into another shop.

 

 _‘Okay, so he’s got his wand already, maybe I should start with that one too. And if I can avoid him, he can’t ask any questions’_ you thought.

 

Given that Remus walked in one direction, you walked in the other, hoping to find a wand shop. But there were so many and such strange shops that you didn’t know where to start. You decided to just look at every shop, in the hope of seeing some wands peeking out anywhere, and walked through the street. Cauldrons, clothes, brooms, animals and things you didn’t recognise were everywhere, but no wands. It wasn’t until you’d almost lost all your hope and had reached the end of the street that you found a little place that had what looked like wands in the window. Looking at the sign above the door, you read _‘Ollivanders’_. The building was old and battered, and could really use a fresh lick of paint, but it still looked kind of… nice, when you thought of it. At least it didn’t have the appearance of its contents trying to eat you, like some of the others had had.

 

Taking a deep breath, you walked inside. You had been right; it was indeed a wand shop, but there was no-one at the counter. You decided to take this opportunity to look around a bit more. The place was filled with boxes, each one containing a wand, no doubt. There were so many that you couldn’t see the walls, and the piles went all the way to the back.

 

“Good morning, I assume you’re looking for a wand?” You heard coming from behind one of those piles. Not seconds later a head popped out from behind the boxes, and smiled at you. It was an older man, grey hair, and looking really kind.

 

“Yes, yes I am” you answered.

 

“Figured as much. Were your parents magical folk or muggles? Makes it a bit easier for me to find out what wand you have, you see. Children can have a similar wand as their parents, sometimes even the same.”

 

“I – uh, I – you see…” You stammered.

 

“Hmm, I do see” he said with a knowing smile. “Don’t worry, it’s no problem. What’s your name?”

 

“(y/n)”

 

“A name that suits you” he said. He looked you up and down, muttered something about your height and stance, your attitude and expression, and started looking for some boxes. Not a minute later he returned, carrying around five – no, wait, six – boxes. He laid them on a desk, and handed you a first wand.

 

“Just wave it around a little” he said.

 

You made a circular motion with the wand, and a thick green fog came out that smelled like rotten eggs.

 

“No, not that one, obviously” he muttered, holding a handkerchief in front of his mouth and nose. He took the wand back and gave you a new one, urging you to do the same as before.

 

This time you made the carpet underneath your feet move, causing you to fall flat on your face. “I don’t think that’s the one either, sir” you groaned against the fabric.

 

“I agree” he chuckled. “Then how about this one?”

 

You slowly got up and took the wand hesitantly, not really wanting to try another. But you knew you had to, so you gently waved that one too. The carpet slid back in place, gently this time, and the unpleasant smell caused by the first one vanished. A smile broke out on your face, and you looked at mister Ollivander happily.

 

“Ah, that’s better. Yes, that’s a fine wand for you. English oak, dragon core, twelve and a half inches, rigid. It’ll suit you” he smiled. “That’s seven Galleons please.”

 

“Uh, about that… See, I haven’t got much money, ten Galleons to be exact.” You figured that since he obviously already knew that you didn’t have parents, you might as well come clean. “Isn’t there a way we can figure something out?”

 

He thought for a few second, smiled at you again, and said: “How about this: you help me in the shop for a week, and the wand is yours.”

 

Your eyes widened and you felt relief washing over you. “That sounds great!”

 

“Very well. Now tell me, where do you stay?”

 

“Uh, I hadn’t really thought about that yet…” you muttered.

 

“If you want, I have a spare room upstairs. It belonged to my son, but he moved out not too long ago.”

 

“You – really? Wow, that’s really kind!”

 

“Oh, it’s nothing” he chuckled. “I’ll just put this wand away, and after one week it’s yours. You’re free to stay afterwards too, of course.”

 

“Thank you mister Ollivander” you beamed up at him. At that moment an older witch came in, talking about how her wand was malfunctioning. Before he inspected the wand, he told you to look for a stack of wands in the back, and sort them into the other piles. You nodded, and went to work.

 

~Time skip brought to you by Batman, because he’s Batman~

 

The week had passed quickly, and you had learned more than you could imagine. About wands and which types there were, but also about Hogwarts. You knew that there were four houses; Gryffindor for the brave, Ravenclaw for the witty and the wise, Slytherin for the ambitious and Hufflepuff for the loyal and the fair players. Mister Ollivander had told you he had been in Ravenclaw, and you hadn’t been surprised. You thought he was absolutely brilliant.

 

He had also helped you send Hogwarts an owl, saying you’d attend the school. On top of all that, he had arranged a ticket for the train to Hogwarts, and had promised you he’d come with you to wave you off. You had also seen Remus a couple more times, but not too much and always avoiding the topic of parents. He had understood that you weren’t all that fond of the subject, so agreed to talk about other things.

 

The weeks afterwards had flown by as well, as you worked in other shops too. Your books were worth thirteen Galleons, which you paid off by working one week. The uniform had been 20 Galleons, for which you worked two weeks, and the cauldron cost you one week as well, being worth 15 Galleons. Now you only had to buy some phials worth 7, a telescope worth 5 and brass scales worth 3 Galleons. Given that school was now starting soon, you paid the ten Galleons and mister Ollivander paid the rest.

 

“As a gift” he had said.

 

You had no idea to what you had deserved the kindness he had shown you, and grew closer to him over the five weeks you had spent with him. He looked after you, taught you things and let you help in the shop even after you had earned your wand.

 

Which made that now, you were walking with him in King’s Cross Station. Before you had left, he had made sure you hadn’t forgotten anything by making you check everything seven times, your wand thirteen.

 

“So, platform nine and three quarters. Where’s that?” you asked, looking up at him. You were standing between platform nine and ten, but didn’t see any other signs.

 

“It’s right… there” he said, pointing at a wall. “Just follow me.” He went to stand against the wall, so you followed his lead. “Now, you can fall through, to platform 9¾, so just lean casually against it. We wouldn’t want any muggles making a fuss, now would we?”

 

You did as he told, and saw everything go dark around you. Only a second later however, you arrived at a crowded platform, with a beautiful train standing there having a sign that said ‘Hogwarts Express’.

 

“It – you – wow –“ you stammered. “It’s beautiful!”

 

He nodded in agreement. “Yes, it is. It’s been a while since I’ve been here. Still exactly the same, though.”

 

He helped you load your luggage into the train, and before you knew it, you were saying goodbye.

 

“Take care of yourself, (y/n). Do your best, and write me once in a while okay? I’d love to hear how you’re doing.”

 

“Promise” you smiled. “Thank you for everything” you muttered as you gave him a final hug.

 

“You’re welcome. Now, off you go!” he slightly pushed you towards the train.

 

You boarded one of the compartments, and waved at him through the window as the train left the station. It was official, you were going to Hogwarts.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own anything, and took the wand description from pottermore. (If you want, there's a test where you can see what wand you'd have.)  
> I don't own you either, but I'd say that's kind of obvious.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!


	5. Welcome Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> x First Year x

The train had left the station, and you were now looking for a compartment. Many were full, and others you didn’t dare to approach. You had thought about finding Remus, but when you had seen him, he had been in a compartment with some other guys. Not that you were scared or anything, but you didn’t exactly want to butt in. So you had waved kindly to him – he had waved back – and you had moved on.

 

A bit further towards the end of the train, there was a compartment that was almost empty, except for two people; a ginger haired girl with rosy cheeks and a pale boy with black (and a bit greasy) hair. They seemed about your age, so you figured you’d try your luck.

 

“Eh, excuse me” you started as you slid the door open, “do you mind if I come sit here? The other compartments are a bit full.”

 

“No, it’s okay” the girl said with a smile. “Are you a first year too?”

 

“Yeah, I am. My name is (y/n), by the way. (y/n) (l/n)” you said as you closed the door behind you and sat down.

 

“I’m Lily Evans, and that is-”

 

“Severus Snape, thank you Lily, I am perfectly capable of introducing myself.”

 

“Nice to meet you both” you said. “And thanks for letting me sit here.”

 

“Oh, no problem. It’s school, we’re going to have a hard enough time as it is. It would be a lot easier for everyone if we’d be a bit nice to each other, don’t you think?”

 

You were about to respond when a snort from the black haired boy interrupted you. You raised an eyebrow, causing Lily to sigh.

 

“Severus here doesn’t think I’m going to have such a good time at Hogwarts because I’m muggle born.”

 

This made both your eyebrows rise. “I didn’t realise there was a difference between muggle born and wizard born?”

 

“Oh, you’ll see” Severus said. “Before you know it, pure bloods will be calling you a mudblood.”

 

“Severus!” Lily shrieked. “I wouldn’t want people calling me that, but _you_ -”

 

“-I didn’t call you that, I just said it as an example.”

 

“Wow, it must really be a bad word if you respond to it like that.”

 

They both looked at you bewildered, until Lily said: “Even I know it’s bad, and I haven’t been in the wizarding world for all that long.”

 

“Are you muggle born too?”

 

“I- uh, yeah” you lied. “Yeah, I am.”

 

“Don’t let any Malfoy, Black or Lestrange hear you say that” Severus muttered. “They’re pure bloods, and proud of it too. I’m telling you, they’ll make your life a living hell.”

 

“How? By calling me a – sorry Lily – mudblood? Believe me, I’ve been called worse my entire life” you grumbled. Both of them knew by the look on your face not to ask any further.

 

~ Time skip brought to you by some wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff ~

 

After a train ride without any further interruptions – except for a guy named Frank Longbottom looking for his toad – you had arrived at Hogwarts. Lily had been very kind, and had talked about her sister, who was a muggle but had wanted to come to Hogwarts as well. She had also talked about her parents, and how she had known Severus because they lived nearby. Severus had been kind as well but hadn’t exactly said that much, only about how his mother was a witch and his father a muggle.

 

Now you were sitting in a boat, and were gliding across the water towards a huge castle, lit by hundreds of little windows, shining like stars. It was more than you had ever imagined, and couldn’t wait to spend your time in there. You didn’t hear much of the conversations around you as you were completely mesmerized by the scene in front of you, and it took Lily shaking your shoulder for you to realise that you had finally arrived.

 

A very large man – Hagrid, you thought his name was – lead you into the castle, through an entrance hall, and stopped you in front of huge closed doors.

 

“Thank you, Hagrid, I’ll take them from here” an older woman said.

 

“Professor McGonagall” he nodded, and disappeared back outside.

 

“Good evening, everyone” she started as she turned to you, “and welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In any moment now you will be going through these doors, and the sorting ceremony will begin. You will be sorted in one of the four houses, and that house will become your home for the next seven years. The houses are Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor and Slytherin. The Sorting Hat will decide for you, and this decision will be final. As the year passes you can gain or lose points for your house by how you behave. At the end of the year, the house cup will be awarded to the house with the most points. Any further questions? No? Then you may come in.”

 

The large doors opened with a wave of her wand, and the most magical hall came in view. Candles were floating everywhere, and the ceiling looked like the night sky. Four long tables were placed in the hall, each of them filled with children older than them. At the end of the hall there was another table, this time filled with the teachers.

 

As you entered the hall went quiet, except for some silent whispering here and there. All the first years walked forward, and were placed in front of a chair standing alone in front of the four tables. An old brown had sat on top of it – at least you thought it was a hat, until it started to sing. _It sang._

 

You looked sideways at Lily, who looked just as bewildered as you felt. Good, so you weren’t the only one who didn’t see that coming.

 

When its song ended the entire hall exploded in applause, and professor McGonagall stepped forward. She carried a list with names, and called each student to the chair. They had to sit down, place the hat on their heads, and it would yell out one of the four houses. Sometimes it would go fast, other times the hat had to think for some minutes. But it wasn’t until your name was called that you were starting to feel nervous. All kinds of worst case scenarios ran through your head as you sat on the chair and felt the weight of the hat sinking onto your head.

 

 _“Ah, what do we have here”_ an old voice said quietly, _“ah, yes… Very polyvalent, this one… Hmm, let’s see, yes, you surely care about treating people fair, you’d do well in Hufflepuff, oh but you’re intelligent too, I see you like to read a lot? So Ravenclaw would be an option too. And ambition for sure, wanting to stand above those who mocked you your entire life; there’s some Slytherin material here as well. Hmm, difficult choice, for sure. But I do have to say, running away like that? That took a whole lot of courage if you ask me, and the determination you showed trying to get here… No doubt, this one belongs in –”_

 

“- GRYFFINDOR!” it yelled, and the table completely on the left roared with applause, like it had done with every other first year sorted into said house. Relief washed over you as you approached the table; everyone was smiling and welcoming you immediately. It took no longer that a few seconds to realise that Lily had been sorted into Gryffindor as well, so you went to sit next to her. Remus came to sit on your other side a bit later.

 

“Hey (y/n)” he said as he sat down.

 

“Hi Remus” you smiled, but you didn’t say too much anymore as the sorting ceremony continued.

 

When it was over, seven first years were sorted into Gryffindor. Before anyone could introduce themselves however, the man that sat in the middle of the head table stood up. Everything went quiet again as he started to speak.

 

“Good evening everyone, and welcome at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry! I can tell you all are hungry, so please, dig in!”

 

The empty trays in front of you were suddenly filled with the most delicious food you had ever seen; roasted chicken, pork covered in a mustard sauce, pies and puddings, and things you hadn’t even seen before. Oh, you dug in, all right.

 

“So” the boy sitting across Remus started with a grin, “I take it we should all introduce ourselves? I’m James Potter.” The boy had messy black hair and hazel eyes, which he flashed over to Lily numerous times.

 

“I’m Mary, Mary Macdonald” the girl next to him and across you said with a shy smile.

 

“My name is Lily Evans” Lily said, ignoring the ‘what a beautiful name’ that came afterwards from James.

 

“And I’m (y/n) (l/n)” you smiled.

 

“Remus Lupin” he introduced himself.

 

“Hi, I-I’m Peter Pettigrew” the boy next to Remus said. He had brown hair and blue eyes, looked practically terrified.

 

“And I’m Sirius Black” the black haired and grey eyed boy opposite of Peter said. He had the same smirk on his face as James, and it was basically obvious that they were going to be good friends.

 

Your thought were quickly interrupted by James exclaiming: “ _Black?_ As in ‘pure-blood-standing-above-everyone-else-Black?”

 

“The one and only” he muttered.

 

“Then how come you’re not in Slytherin?” James inquired.

 

“That’s probably what my ‘family’ is wondering too. See the blonde-haired girl that is probably glaring daggers at my back right now?” James and Mary turned around as all of you searched for said person, and found her quickly. She wasn’t exactly being subtle in the entire daggers-thing. “That’s my cousin, Narcissa. She’s in her fifth year now.”

 

“But why is it such a problem if you’re in Gryffindor instead of Slytherin?” you asked. All heads turned towards you, and you gulped. “I- I mean, so what if you have some different qualities than your family, is that really so bad? Or is that just another thing that I don’t get?” you tried to joke, and Lily next to you actually giggled a bit.

 

“It’s just” Sirius started, and sighed. “Slytherin is in general a place for pure blood lovers, like Salazar Slytherin himself was. Gryffindor, in their eyes, is a house for idiotic do-gooders. And given that all of my family was in Slytherin…”

 

“There’s this huge rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin, (y/n). Remember that, and don’t expect them to like you” Remus said.

 

You looked around the table with a raised eyebrow. Everyone following the conversation – and that included some of the older kids on your left – obviously agreed on the matter.

 

“That’s ridiculous” you huffed. “I mean, Severus got sorted into Slytherin, and he’s not bad!”

 

“You mean the one with the slimy hair?” James asked. Before you or Lily could comment, he continued: “You just wait and see. Before you know it, he’s ganged up with them and he’ll be one of the biggest gits you’ve ever known, just like the whole lot of them.”

 

You looked at him a couple of seconds, blinked at him, and simply stated: “I still think it’s ridiculous.” Sirius and Remus chuckled, and James huffed. “But hey, if in a couple of years – who knows, maybe even months – it turns out that they _do_ turn into gits, I won’t deny that I was wrong.”

 

“We’ll hold you up to that” James said, smirk back on his face.

 

“My my, so confident, Potter?” you grinned.

 

“Always” he shot back.

 

Dinner went by pretty smooth after that, until the older woman from earlier that evening walked up to you. And not ‘you’ as in ‘all of you’, oh no. ‘You’ as in ‘you and you alone, singular you’.

 

“Miss (l/n),” she started, and all eyes of those around you shot towards you. “If you’d please follow me, I’d like to have a word.”

 

‘ _Great_ ’ you thought, ‘ _first night here, and I’m already in trouble._ ’

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own anything, and took some descriptions from pottermore.  
> I don't own you either, but I'd say that's kind of obvious.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!


	6. Of Fears and Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> x First Year x

You followed the woman out of the great hall while trying to ignore the stares you received from the other students. She lead you through some halls and into an empty classroom, where she closed the door behind you. The candles where lit by a wave of her wand, and a chair moved to stand in front of the desk.

 

“Have a seat” she told you as she sat down in the teacher’s chair opposite from you. “Allow me to properly introduce myself; I am professor Macgonagall - I will be teaching you Transfiguration this year – but more importantly, I am head of Gryffindor house. That makes you my responsibility for as long as you stay at this school.”

 

You nodded, and asked: “Is there something I’ve done wrong, professor?”

 

“Not really, unless of course running away from the orphanage you lived in” she said with a frown. Before you could protest, she continued: “Oh, don’t get me wrong, dear. I don’t think you should have stayed there either. However, things are a bit more complicated than what you and I think is right. According to the law, miss Vanstout is still your guardian, and she did not give you permission to stay here. Do you understand that?”

 

“Yes, professor.”

 

“Very good. However, the daft woman mustn’t expect us to force you to return.” At this, professor Macgonagall surprised you. It must have shown on your face, because she raised an eyebrow at you and said: “Did you really think we’d send you back to that awful place?”

 

“I- uh, I don’t really know what to expect anymore” you admitted sheepishly.

 

“Well, miss (l/n), I can assure you that during this year, she won’t trouble you. We have informed her that you’ll be staying at Hogwarts, given that it’s the best for all of us. And no, we didn’t tolerate any contradiction.”

 

“Really?” you exclaimed happily. “Thank you! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!”

 

“Oh, don’t thank _me_ dear, it was professor Dumbledore, the headmaster himself, who went to ‘convince’ her.”

 

“The headmaster himself did that for me?”

 

“You must understand, miss (l/n), that this arrangement lasts for only one school year. During the summer holidays, we won’t be able to provide you with any help. I’m afraid you’ll have to figure that out by yourself.”

 

You knew that you’d have trouble when the time came, but for now all you felt was relief. “I’ll manage” you responded with a smile. “Is that all you wished to see me for, professor?”

 

“Yes, for now. I’ll lead you towards your common room.”

 

You both stood up and walked towards the door in silence. While she lead you through the hallways and staircases – _‘Watch out there, that stair vanishes when you step on it’_ – you suddenly remembered: “Oh, and professor, if you would please thank professor Dumbledore for me next time you talk with him? I’m sure he’s a very busy man and I wouldn’t want to interrupt him on anything…”

 

“I’ll make sure to let him know” she said. “Ah, we’ve arrived. This -” she pointed at a painting “- is the entrance to your common room. It opens with a password, this year it’s ‘carpe diem’. The portrait swung forward, revealing a hole that lead to a cosy room with chairs, couches and a slightly lit fireplace. “The stairs on the left lead towards the girls’ dormitories.”

 

You were about to crawl through the hole when she stopped you. “Oh, and miss (l/n)? I don’t know what you have told your fellow students, but I meant what I said earlier this evening. Your house _is_ your family, and lying to them will only bring complications where none are needed. Good night.”

 

You crawled into the common room, and noticed that everyone had already gone to bed. Deciding to do the same you ascended the stairs on the left as quiet as you could. When you arrived in the first year girls’ dormitories you had expected that Lily and Mary were already asleep, but you saw that they were still very awake. It took less than a second for you to figure out why.

 

“(Y/n), you’re here!”

 

“What happened?”

 

“Are you in trouble?”

 

“Is there a problem?”

 

“Did you do anything wrong?”

 

“Are you expelled?”

 

“Indeed I am, nothing special, no, no, of course not, and don’t be daft Mary, expelling me on the first evening?” you smirked. They both sighed in relief as they went to sit on their beds.

 

“But, why did she want to talk to you?” Lily asked much more calmly this time.

 

You took a breath to tell another little lie, but stopped before you even made a sound. Instead, you sighed, pinched the bridge of your nose, and said: “I haven’t been exactly honest with you.”

 

At this they both frowned and waited for you to continue.

 

“Well, not exactly with you, Mary, but I might have told a little lie to Lily. You see, I told her that I was muggle born, but the truth is that I have no idea what I am. I grew up in an orphanage, and I’ve never known my parents. All I know is that they- they dumped me there, and that they’re probably still alive. It’s not that I care all that much to be honest, it’s just that I didn’t want the label ‘orphan’ pressed upon my head from the moment I set foot here” you finished in a low voice.

 

“Oh, (y/n), we wouldn’t label you” Lily said.

 

“Of course not” Mary agreed. “You’re a nice girl, and it doesn’t matter whether you have parents or not.”

 

“Thanks guys” you muttered with a sheepish smile, and quickly got dressed for bed. “I’d rather have you not telling anyone just yet though. Wouldn’t want any gossip spreading around the school.”

 

Even though they both agreed, none of you knew about the four boys that had been standing at the bottom of the stairs, listening to every word you had said.

 

“But why did that professor want to talk to you?” Mary asked after a short while.

 

“Oh, that… The woman of the orphanage didn’t really approve of me coming to Hogwarts, so there is a possibility that I kind of maybe –”

 

“(Y/n), what did you do?” Lily asked sternly.

 

“I ran away.”

 

They both gasped and shrieked: “You _what_?”

 

“I ran away” you shrugged simply. “No way I was going to stay in that dump. Professor Macgonagall merely wanted to inform me that professor Dumbledore went to ‘persuade’ her to actually _allow_ me to be here. Don’t think she liked it though.” At this, they giggled. “By the way, is there anything I missed?”

 

“Not much” Lily said. “The headmaster gave a speech, not too long though. Told us not to go into the Forbidden Forest – pretty obvious if you ask me, given the name – and introduced some of the teachers. That’s all.”

 

You all crawled into your beds, blew out the candles on your nightstands and said goodnight. Before you knew it, you had all fallen asleep.

 

~ Time skip brought to you by me, because I can ~

 

You woke around 4 p.m., not a great way to start your first day. Meh, rather this than oversleeping, right? Still, you were tossing and turning, trying to find a position to get comfortable in, but you just wouldn’t fall back to sleep.

 

You climbed out of bed slowly, took your school uniform out of your trunk and got dressed quietly. Doing your best not to wake your roommates, you slowly opened the door and closed it again behind you. Figuring they could still hear you through the door, you sneaked downstairs. However, when you reached the bottom of the stairs, you froze.

 

A little strange creature had been doing something in the room, but was now looking at you with its big eyes. It was wearing something that looked like an old potato bag, had long ears, and was about the height where it reached your waist. And given the look on its face, it hadn’t expect anyone to be out of bed yet.

 

You broke the silence by asking: “What are you doing?” It might have been a strange question, but hey, what if it was trying to steal something?

 

“Pommy is cleaning, miss” its screechy voice answered.

 

This confused you. “Why?” you asked.

 

“Because it is my job, miss” it answered happily. “We have to take care of the masters, miss.”

 

“Wait, _we_? How many of you are there?”

 

“Pommy does not know, miss. She has never counted.”

 

‘ _Okay, so she’s female. Good to know.’_

 

“And, not to be rude or anything, but what are you exactly?”

 

“Oh, miss isn’t rude at all, oh no! We are house-elves. We are the ones that clean and light the fires and cook…”

 

“Wait, you cook? The dinner of last night, you did that? I thought it just – I don’t know – appeared?”

 

“Oh, no miss. We cook in the kitchen, right below the great hall, and then the food is brought to the great hall by master Dumbledore. He is very kind, our master, yes, very kind!”

 

“Yeah, I got that same impression” you chuckled. “I didn’t realise there was a kitchen underneath the great hall, but then again, I haven’t exactly been here for long.”

 

“Not many student know where the kitchens are, miss. Though they’re not too hard to find. If you take the staircase down towards the Hufflepuff basement, you arrive in a hallway with many paintings. There is one with a fruit bowl. If you tickle the pear, it turns into the door handle. You are free to come by any time you are feeling hungry, miss.”

 

Thank you, I’ll keep that in mind. Oh, and my name is (y/n), by the way.”

 

“My name is Pommy, miss.”

 

“It was nice to meet you Pommy.”

 

Her eyes lit up in happiness as you said this. “It was very nice to meet you too, miss (y/n). Very nice indeed!” She snapped her fingers, and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

 

You spent the rest of the morning in the common room, waiting for Lily and Mary. When they finally did come down – _“(y/n), there you are! We thought you had left already!”_ – you went downstairs for breakfast immediately.

 

You told them about Pommy and what she had told you. When you arrived in the great hall, you noticed that the boys weren’t there yet.

 

“Eh, (y/n), I’m going to go say hi to Severus. You want to come?” Lily asked.

 

“Nah, I’m really hungry, so I’m going to go with Mary.”

 

“Oh, ok, I’ll see you in a minute.”

 

“Tell him I said hi!” you waver her off. You went to the table to sit opposite of Mary, but before you even had gotten comfortable, two blackheads sat down next to you and swung their arms over your shoulders.

 

“Hello (y/n)” Sirius smirked.

 

“Lovely morning, isn’t it?” James said, also grinning.

 

“So get this, last night we just so happened to hear you enter the common room –”

 

“- and we just so happened heard you mounting the stairs –”

 

“- and we, as good Gryffindor students, and of course, good friends, just so happened wanted to make sure that you were all right.”

 

“All right, will you just get to the point?” you interrupted their intro. “Because I’m getting dizzy from having to look from side to side when you are talking.”

 

“We’re getting to it, don’t worry” Sirius said. “So anyway, we may have overheard some parts of the conversation you had last night.”

 

“Yeah, he means that we heard every word you said” James jumped in.

 

“Thanks, Potter, for clearing that out” Sirius said sarcastically.

 

“Any time, Black. We just want you to know that, well, we know, and we don’t judge you in any way.”

 

“Don’t you ever pay attention? She didn’t talk about being judged, she didn’t want to be _labelled_. *Sigh* What am I going to do with him?” he raised an eyebrow wearily.

 

“You do realise you guys met each other yesterday, right?” you deadpanned.

 

“Of course we do, what kind of question is that?”

 

Only then it dawned on you what they had said. You narrowed your eyes, and pinched them in their sides. Hard.

 

“OW!” they yelped. “What was that for?!”

 

“It. Is. Not. Nice. Listeninginonpeople!!” you hissed as you kept on poking them in their sides.

 

“Ow, ow, (y/n), there is no need to – oh would you just – OW REMUS COME ON NOT COOL STOP IT”

 

Luckily for you, Remus had arrived, pulled the boys on both your sides by the ears, and dragged them to their places. “Sorry (y/n), I tried to stop them, but they don’t exactly listen.”

 

“It’s okay” you huffed.

 

“Hey!” Lily cheered when she arrived. However, her smile quickly disappeared when she saw the expressions of the different people around the table. “What did I miss?”

 

“Nothing” you said, but it didn’t ease her suspicion, and neither did the grin that slowly appeared on you face. You loved this place already.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own anything, and took some descriptions literally from either the books or pottermore.  
> I don't own you either, but I'd say that's kind of obvious.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!


	7. Aim for the Slytherins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> x First Year x

You had all received your timetables, and given that it was a Thursday, your first lesson was Charms with the Ravenclaw students. Your teacher was professor Flitwick; a funny little man who had a hard time convincing _some students_ that he actually was a good wizard.

 

“Aw, come on, but he’s just so tiny” James whined behind you. “I can’t even properly see him!”

 

You turned around and hissed “Perhaps if you would _shut up_ you would at least be able to hear him?”

 

“Whoa, easy there” Sirius grinned. “He was only joking.”

 

“To you it may be funny, but if you’d hear ‘jokes’ all the time about something as silly as your height, would you like that?”

 

“Of course not, but that’s why we make sure he doesn’t hear us in the first place” he simply replied.

 

You narrowed your eyes at him and turned back around. Whatever sympathy you had felt for him earlier was leaving quickly. _‘This guy is an idiot’_ you thought, and tried to focus on the professor again.

 

After the lesson had ended you made your way downstairs, towards the ground floor. Transfiguration was the lesson you looked forward to most, partly because it seemed very interesting, but mostly because it was professor McGonagall’s class and you wanted to find out what she was like as a teacher.

 

She turned out to be very strict, but somehow you liked her teaching method. She treated the Hufflepuff students exactly the same as the ones in Gryffindor, and was passionate about her subject. From what she explained you learned that it was a very hard branch of magic, and that you had to get everything exactly right. That became clear when she handed you all a match and explained to you how to turn it into a needle. It was very hard – nobody had succeeded yet, until you took a deep breath, focussed really hard and said the spell while waving your wand a little above the match. Your eyes widened when you saw your match change from wood to silvery metal and become pointy.

 

“(Y/n), you did it!” Lily said happily next to you.

 

“Let me have a look” professor Mcgonagall said, and took the needle from your desk. She looked at you approvingly and said: “Not bad, miss (l/n). Not bad at all.” From that moment you knew that  you absolutely loved Transfiguration class. By the end of the period Lily and Remus had managed to transform their matches too, as well as a girl from Hufflepuff – although hers still had a bit of wood left at the end.

 

It was now lunchbreak, and you were walking into the great hall. You noticed some Slytherin girls snigger behind you, but chose not to pay any attention to them. Instead you continued walking towards the table where you all took your regular seats.

 

“So” James started, “flying’s next, with the Slytherin gits. Am I the only one looking forward to it?”

 

“What’s it like, flying?” you asked. “I’ve never even seen anyone do it before.”

 

“Me neither” Lily said.

 

“Well, you use brooms, and you have all these different kinds. Some are faster, others are more controllable. We’ll probably use the latter though. But flying’s awesome. It can be a bit hard in the beginning, but once you get the hang of it you’re just –” he sighed “- free…”

 

If you hadn’t been looking forward to it you definitely were now. You all ate as fast as you could, went to drop your books in the Gryffindor common room, and went straight to the fields outside, where both the other students and a woman with grey hair were waiting. You and Lily went to stand next to Severus as the professor started to speak.

 

“Hello everyone, I’m madam Hooch and welcome to your first flying lesson” she said. “If everyone would please stand on next to a broom – on its left side, to be precise. Now, hold your right hand above the broom, and say, loudly and clearly, ‘up’.”

 

Everyone did as they were told, and from the corner of your eye you saw James’ shoot straight up into his hand. Sirius’ followed immediately after, and they grinned at each other.

 

Looking back to your own broom you tried to focus, which was really hard considering the yelling students around you. _‘Come on, just get –‘_

 

“Up!”

 

The broomstick flew into your hand and your hand clamped around it. Looking around, you saw that there were only a few more students with theirs on the ground. However, not that much later everyone had their broom in hand and the lesson could really start.

 

"Very well, now everyone mount your brooms. You will kick off the ground  _gently_ , hover for a few seconds, and then lean forward to land again. On my mark, one, two -" She blew the whistle, and people started to float immediately. You gently kicked off the ground as well, getting a strange feeling in your stomach as you started to rise as well. Looking over to Lily you noticed her face was pale.

 

"You okay?" you asked.

 

She looked over to you with her hands clenched tightly around her broom and nodded. "Yeah, I- I'm just not really used to the feeling, that's all."

 

"You'll get over it" Severus said from her other side. He sat relaxed on his broom. 

 

 _'He probably did this before'_   you thought. The wistle blew again, and you slowly leaned forward to land. 

 

"That wasn't all too bad" you said to Lily. "And Sev' is right, before you know it , it'll be comfortable. We just have to practice some more."

 

"All right" madame Hooch interrupted you, "the ones who can fly properly go stand there -" she pointed to her left " - and the others go stand over there -" she pointed to her right. 

 

You, Lily, Mary and Peter went to stand with some Slytherins who didn't know how to fly either. On the other side there were Severus, Remus, James and Sirius, again with some kids you didn't know. 

 

"All right, the ones who know how to fly will choose one student of the other group, and help them a little. Fly slowly, make sure they're comfortable and  _help them_."

 

All of the Slytherins paired up immediately, except for Severus, who stepped over to Lily. 

 

"Thanks, Sev'" she muttered, and went a bit further to practice with him. Watching them, you hadn't noticed the person coming to stand next to you until they slid a hand around your shoulder.

 

"Ah, young love" they muttered. "Would be beautiful if he weren't a slimy git."

 

You poked him hard in his ribs and he yelped. "Be nice, Sirius" you said calmly.

 

"I  _am_ nice -" you raised an eyebrow at him "- I'm going to help you with your flying!"

 

"That's because the professor told you to, that doesn't count."

 

"Are you two lovebirds going to start or what?" James sniggered behind you. That's when you realised Sirius still had his arm around you, so you pushed it off.

 

The grin vanished off Sirius' face and he suddenly became very serious. (Pun unintended) "So, you've never really flown before?" You shook your head. "That's okay, you just have to make sure that you always hold on to your broom. All right, let's see what you've got." 

 

You both mounted your broom, and kicked off the ground. You slowly rose to a hight of ten feet, and then stopped while Sirius flew a bit higher.

 

"Come on (y/n), don't be afraid. You won't fall off, I promise." He came to fly next to you. "And otherwise I'll catch you." 

 

You had no idea why he was being so kind, but it made you blush slightly.

 

"Just lift the front of your broom a bit more, and lean forwards. You'll fly forward while going up. If you lean gently it'll go slow enough." You did as he told you, and surely but steadily you flew higher. When you reached a height of 25 feet he stopped you. "There you go" he smiled. 

 

Looking down, you felt the colour draining from your face. "S- Sirius, I don't want to be a whim or something, but I- I  _really_ don't like this height!!"

 

"Hey, easy... You're doing great! The broom does what you want (y/n), and it won't let you fall. Try flying around a bit" he said ad he took your hand and flew around a bit, making you follow. "See? You're already getting the hang of it! It's just like riding a bike. You just have to dare to do it!"

 

"But I never learnt to ride a bike!" you squeaked as you flew faster.

 

This surprised him. "Really? Never?"

 

"I never owned a bike, I didn't have to!"

 

"I'll teach you" he said. "Besides, if you're as good at riding a bike as you are at flying, you'll do great."

 

It was only then that you realised; he had let go of your hand, and you were flying all on your own. A small smile broke out on your face. "James was right" you whispered, "this  _is_ great..."

 

"Now, try to make a turn to the left by leaning and turning your broom a little."

 

You managed to turn properly, and grinned. "I have to say, you're not a bad teacher. Not at all."

 

"Nah, you're just a natural -"

 

" **IIIIINCOMIIIIIINNNGG!!!!** " 

 

You ducked right in time as Peter came speeding over you - "Sorry (y/n)!!" - with a cackling James behind him. The latter stopped however when Sirius asked what was going on.

 

"I told him to go for it" he grinned. "Now he doesn't know how to sto- OH MY MERLIN PETER LOOK OUT YOU'LL HIT REMUS AND MARY!! AIM FOR THE SLYTHERINS!!  **AIM FOR THE** **SLYTHERINS!!!!** " He yelled. "Gotta go" he said, and sped off. You and Sirius remained silent for a couple of seconds, before the both of you started to laugh hysterically. 

 

"Maybe you should go and help him" you laughed.

 

"And leave you here? Don't think so" he said still laughing as well.

 

"I'll be fine, go before someone gets seriously injured."

 

"I hope for you that pun was unintended."

 

You grinned. "Keep on hoping..." He muttered something under his breath before speeding off towards the current rampage and the idiot in its trail. You shook your head sniggering, and went to find Lily and Severus. "Hey guys, how's it going? Obviously better than Peter, I'd say?"

 

"Yeah, poor kid" Lily said. "James just did this to him while he should be helping."

 

"You have to admit, it's kind of funny though. As long as he doesn't get hurt..." 

 

Lily looked at you with a raised eyebrow. "James put him in danger, and now they can't get him down" she stated matter of factly.

 

"I still think it's funny" you muttered under your breath. When you noticed Peter speeding in your direction and the others not even getting closer to him, you sighed. "Fiiiiiiine, I'll go help him..."

 

You aligned yourself with him, only a bit more to the left. When he passed next to you, you hooked your right arm into his, yanking him off his broom. He turned mid-air and landed behind you on your broom while his descended quickly and landed on the grounds. Peter held you tightly while muttering a constant 'thank you, thank you...'. James, Sirius, Remus and madame Hooch stopped in front of you, two of them looking amused, one relieved and the other on the edge between worried and furious. 

 

"Whose idea was this??" she barked.

 

The grin on James' face disappeared quickly as he looked down. "I- I'm sorry professor, I lost control" Peter muttered. 'It w- wasn't James' fault, he tried to help me..."

 

This somewhat seemed to calm her down. "At least nobody got hurt" she muttered, and turned to you. "Twenty points to Gryffindor, for clever thinking and fast acting when a fellow student was in danger. Class dismissed!"

 

She flew away while blowing her whistle, leaving you all flying there with grins on your faces. Except for Peter of course, he was still terrified and muttering his thanks. You all leaned froward while pointing your brooms down in order to land. When your feet touched the ground, Peter jumped off immediately and started to 'hug" the ground. "Never again, never ever again, I tell you..."

 

"Good job James, you traumatised him" you joked.

 

"Are you sure that wasn't just you, (l/n)?" a snarky response came from behind you. You turned around and saw some Slytherins standing there, one girl more in front.

 

Blinking a couple of times, you answered dryly: "I'm sorry, have we met, or is it normal that I don't give a rats ass about you?"

 

James and Sirius sniggered behind you, while the girl just smirked. "Oh, no, we haven't met yet. How could we, with a standard like yours? I mean, an  _orphanage_?  _Really_? What, are your parents dead or something?"

 

Only one thought flashed through your mind as she said that.  _'How does she know?'_   But you did your best not to let it show. 

 

"How should I know?" you responded, still holding an uninterested tone. "But I don't care, I never even knew them. So if you want to find something to hurt me, you're really going to make a bigger effort than confronting me with things I already know. Now, if you don't mind." You turned around and walked away, trying to hide the tears that were starting to form in your eyes from your friends. You failed.

 

~ Time skip brought to you by a teenage dirtbag baby, yeah just a teenage dirtbag baby,listen to Iron Maiden maybe with me... ~

 

You had sped off to the Gryffindor common room, muttered the password to the fat lady and claimed a chair near the fire. The common room was still empty, probably due to the fact that the sun was shining and the students wanted to spend the rest of their afternoon outside. You had pulled upyour legs and buried your head in your knees while you let the tears roll freely. You hated that you got this upset over what some random chick said. You didn't even know her name! But most of all you were upset because you knew your parents had dumped you. Though you tried your best not to show it, it really hurt you to know that they didn't want you.

 

Your thoughts were interrupted when you heard other students entering the common room. You quickly wiped the tears away as Lily's voice reached your ears. "(Y/n)? Are you in here?" You didn't respond, but heard her footsteps coming your way.

 

A hand on your shoulder caused you to look up. Lily was standing there with the others, all sympathetic looks on their faces. You knew she was going to say that you didn't have to worry about just one girl, or something like that, so you decided to interrupt her before she even started to speak.

 

"They dumped me" you choked out bitterly, and saw by the looks on their faces that they didn't expect you to say that. "Of all the people in the world,  _they_ had to be the ones to give up on me, and they didn't even know me yet." You sniffed as she and Mary closed their arms around you. "What did I do wrong?"

 

"Oh, dear, you never did anything wrong. You're a wonderful girl with amazing talents and a good sense of humour. It's their loss, not yours."

 

"Lily's right, (y/n)" Remus said. "Listen, we don't know why your parents left you, but that doesn't make you any less than what you are. We care about  _you_ , whether you have parents or not."

 

"Thanks guys" you sniffled, wiping away your tears. "Oh god, I'm so sorry. I don't even know why I got upset over something that idiot said. I don't even know the twats name!"

 

"Well, how about we show said twat who she's dealing with?" James grinned. "I mean, I know you're not into humiliating people and stuff, but come on, she's got it coming."

 

"Sounds good to me" you smiled. Lily and Mary were yanked away from your sides as he and Sirius took their places on the armchairs.

 

"Good," the latter started, "because I've got this wonderful idea..."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own anything, and took some descriptions literally from either the books or pottermore.  
> I don't own you either, but I'd say that's kind of obvious.
> 
> Sorry if there are more mistakes in this one than usual, my Word stopped working so yeah... No spell check :/
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!


	8. The Perfect Prank

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> x First Year x

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I just want to thank everybody for all the kudos and comments, they really do mean the world to me!  
> Now, off with the new chapter!!

 

The boys had introduced you to many different spells and hexes; there was the slug-vomiting charm that made you burp up slugs for ten minutes, the knee reversal hex, the entomorphis hex that made you resemble an insect and the desaugio hex that made your teeth grow at an alarming rate. However, your favourite was by far the Bat-bogey hex. It made bats fly out of your nose.

 

Bats.

 

Nose.

 

 _Perfect_.

 

So that evening you all went downstairs to eat, acting as casual as possible. Lily thought it was a bad idea to get into trouble like this, Mary and Remus hardly said anything – though you could swear you saw a little grin on Remus’ face at the idea – while James, Sirius and Peter thought it would be glorious. For the record, you thought so too.

 

Petronilla Parkinson , that turned out to be her name. The idiot wouldn’t know what hit her.

 

It turned out that the story of what had happened during flying class had spread quickly, given that it was the topic most first years and several older students were talking about.

 

“I _do_ wonder how they knew” you suddenly said during the meal. “Anyone have any ideas?” It suddenly became very quiet as everyone shook their head. All except for one. “Lily, what did you do?”

 

She looked up from her plate guiltily and said: “I’m so sorry, I might have let something slip to Severus – I didn’t mean to, really – and I guess they overheard us. Oh (y/n), I _really_ am sorry-”

 

“It’s okay” you sighed, “I was just wondering. Besides, it’s not like it was intentional, right?”

 

She sighed in relief for you not being angry, and you all finished your meals in peace. When everyone was finished eating you all got up and walked towards the entrance hall. Lily and Mary went towards the common room immediately, wanting nothing to do with this.

 

 _‘There she is’_ you thought. You saw Petronilla walking a bit further with her back towards you. James nudged you and grinned. You subtly pointed your wand towards her and muttered the hex. A purple flash appeared and hit her square in the back. She turned around startled, looking for what – or who - hit her. Her eyes widened in both surprise and anger as her nose started to wobble, and suddenly a bat came flying out. Silence covered the hall, until most of the Gryffindors started to laugh hysterically, you amongst them.

 

“YOU!” she yelled, “WHAT DID YOU- hachoo!” Several bats came flying out of her nose.

 

“How- hachoo!” More bats. Even the Ravenclaws were sniggering now.

 

“You know – karma – can really be – a bitch sometimes” you said between laughs. “Let’s face it, Parkinson –” more bats were coming out of her nose “- you had it coming.”

 

“Petronilla!” someone shouted from up the stairs. “What’s going on?!”

 

“What does it – hachoo!” (more bats) “- look like?” She hissed.

 

“Who did this?” the older boy demanded. She pointed in your direction.

 

“Oi! Prove it!” you yelled.

 

“You dare do this to my sister?” the boy growled.

 

“Great, another one” you muttered. “And you shouldn’t ask such stupid questions.”

 

However, what he did next was something you didn’t expect. He pulled out his wand. “You’ll pay for that, you little- Mutatio Skullus!”

 

“Protego!” three voices yelled next to you. Red sparks went flying everywhere as the hex repelled against the invisible shield Remus, Sirius and James just casted.

 

“Are you all right?” Peter asked, his blue eyes filled with worry.

 

“Yeah, fine” you mumbled.

 

“ **What in Merlin’s name is going on here?** ” Professor McGonagall’s voice boomed through the hall. It wasn’t hard for her to figure out though, given that now seven students were standing in battle stance – two Slytherins, and five Gryffindors.

 

“Oh, nothing special, professor” you said with your sweetest smile as you put your wand away. “Parkinson here – I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your first name –”

 

“Parnell” he grumbled.

 

“Yes, well, Parnell was just showing us a duelling stance. Wasn’t he?”

 

The students around you, not only the Gryffindors, agreed. Nobody wanted to face an angry Minerva McGonagall. She, however, narrowed her eyes.

 

“Very well” she said. “But may I remind you that the improper use of magic shall _not_ be tolerated?”

 

“Of course, professor. We’ll all make sure to keep that in mind.”

 

She looked at everyone with a piercing glare, her eyes finally resting on Petronilla, who was currently holding her hands in front of her nose. “Miss Parkinson, what’s the matter?”

 

“Just- trying not to sneeze, professor…”

 

“Go see madam Pomfrey if you feel a cold coming up. Now, back  to your dormitories!” With that she turned around and walked back up the stairs. The hall remained quiet for a couple more seconds before-

 

“HACHOOOO!” At least fifteen bats came flying out her nose, making many students snigger again.

 

“This isn’t over, (l/n)” Parnell hissed. “And next time, your little friends won’t be here to save your sorry ass.” The Slytherins shot a nasty glare at you and left.

 

You stared after them, until five voices simultaneously said: “Worth it.”

 

~ Just a wee lil’ time skip, so that you don’t have to do all those stairs. You’re welcome.~

 

You couldn’t help but worry a little bit after what Parkinson had said, and it showed.

 

“C’mon (y/n), are you really worried about that git?” James asked when you were all seated in the common room.

 

“I don’t blame her” Remus said. “Petronilla might not be such a threat because she’s a first year, but her brother… I mean, you know how he is Sirius, him and his family. They’re pure blood fanatics.”

 

“But we don’t even _know_ what my parents were” you said.

 

“People were talking at dinner, (y/n). I heard some Slytherins say that your parents probably gave you away because you’re a witch and they freaked out.”

 

“…”

 

“That’s-” Sirius started.

 

“Possible” you mumbled.

 

“(Y/n), don’t say that” he said sternly.

 

“Why not? I mean, it could be. I’m not saying that it changes anything, just that it could be the reason why I was left there.” None of them responded to that. You sighed. “All right, so, what was that spell you used to protect me?”

 

“You know,” James started, “I don’t think that’s going to do it. If Parkinson really wants to get to you, one simple shielding spell isn’t going to do it. How about we go to the library to look up the basics?”

 

“At this hour?” Remus deadpanned.

 

A sly smirk appeared on his face. “I’ve got just the thing for that.”

 

He ran up the stairs to the boys’ dormitories, and didn’t come back for some minutes.

 

“What the Hell’s he doing up there?” you wondered out loud.

 

“What, do you miss me already?” a voice said next to your ear, making you yelp. James’ obnoxious laugh sounded through the common room as he appeared by taking of what looked like a cloak.

 

“ _You’ve got an invisibility cloak?_ ” Sirius asked.

 

“You shouldn’t ask such stupid questions” James impersonated you, making you all laugh. “All right, the library is on the third floor, next to the Charms corridor. You’ll find what you need there. But don’t take too long, you don’t want to risk Filch catching you.”

 

“Thanks James” you smiled, and threw the cloak around your shoulders. You headed towards the portrait hole, crawled through and walked out, making your way towards the library. Luckily you weren’t spotted by Mr Filch.

 

“All right” you muttered to yourself, “what do we have here?”

 

‘Curses and counter-curses’ by Vindictus Viridian. _‘Hmm, could come in handy.’_

 

‘The Essential Defence against the Dark Arts’ by Arsenius Jigger. _‘A bit too extreme for my taste.’_

 

‘The Healer’s Helpmate’ by H. Pollingtonious. _’This one seems interesting.’_

 

‘Lupine Lawlessness: Why Lycanthropes Don’t Deserve to Live’ by Ermett Picardy. You knew that this wasn’t what you had been looking for, but your curiosity got the best of you. Laying down the two books you had picked, you took the other off the shelf and started to skim the pages.

 

_“Werewolves are mindless beasts… Lose their humanity… Cruel, heartless, hazardous… lost their moral sense, even in their human form, which makes them dangerous… don’t deserve to live-”_

 

You slammed the book shut and put it back on its place. Shaking your head, you thought: _‘Who would write such a thing? It’s not their fault…’_ You didn’t know that much about werewolves, but even you knew that his was wrong.

 

Trying to focus on something else you took the other books and started to read them, beginning with the Healers Helpmate.

 

“Anapneo, to clear the throat of someone choking… Tergeo, to clean up dried blood from a bleeding wound… Ferule, binds and splints fractures… Episkey, to treat mild to moderate injuries… Vulnera Sanentur, to heal deep gashes…” The list went on and on. You tried to memorise some of them before changing to the other book.

 

There were a lot of curses that seemed _very_ interesting. After learning some of those as well (the Full Body-Bind Curse, the Leg-Locker Curse, the Pimple Jinx, Stickfast hex and the Hair Loss Curse) you put the books back in their places. You took James’ cloak and quickly hurried back to the common room. You muttered the password to the Fat Lady, who muttered a ‘sure, come in dear’ in-between her snoring, before swinging open.

 

The fire had almost faded entirely, but James was still there. When he heard you enter, a look of relief soon covered his features. “I was starting to worry you’d been caught” he chuckled.

 

“Me? Never” you joked. You handed him the cloak, said goodnight, and went to bed. Mary and Lily were already sleeping, and soon you were too, but not before writing down the spells you had learnt.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own anything, and took some descriptions literally from either the books or pottermore.  
> I don't own you either, but I'd say that's kind of obvious.


	9. Healing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> x First Year x

You woke up with the worst feeling ever: the feeling that it was weekend. Of course, this is a rather nice feeling, except when it’s Friday and you have two periods of potions with the Slytherins to look forward to. Needless to say, you weren’t exactly in a good mood when you were getting your robes on.

 

“So, how did it go last night? No detentions?” Lily asked out of the blue.

 

“Uh, no. It went rather well, actually. You should have seen the look on her face” you said, snickering at the memory. However, seeing the look on _her_ face, you quickly stifled them.

 

“No, I should not have, and neither should you” she snapped. “(Y/n), what were you thinking?! You could have gotten into serious trouble! Besides, that prank was totally uncalled for.”

 

“Wh- _uncalled for?_ Lily, she had it coming!” you objected.

 

Mary quickly stepped in, saying: “I understand that you were angry, I really do, but don’t you think that hexing her maybe went, I don’t know, a bit too far?”

 

“It was not like she got hurt or anything…” you muttered.

 

Lily sighed. “Look, I understand that you were pissed, but I don’t think you had to take it this far. Then again, she really _did_ say some nasty things.”

 

“Exactly, and it’s not like it’ll happen again” you said with a sheepish smile. “Let’s just go downstairs to eat something, ‘kay?”

 

They both nodded, and not much later you were all seated at the Gryffindor table in the great hall. Save the few whispers and students pointing towards both you and Parkinson, dinner was calm. That was, until-

 

“(YYYY/NNNNN)!!!” two voices yelled at the same time, followed by two boys squeezing you between them. James had crammed himself between you and Lily – _“Hi Lily” he smirked_ – and Sirius sat on your other side.

 

“Sleep well?” the latter asked.

 

“Not long enough” you said with a pout.

 

He was going to respond, if he weren’t interrupted by Remus. “You’re in my seat.”

 

Sirius grumbled and got up while Peter arrived as well. “Hey (y/n)” he said while sitting down.

 

“Morning” you greeted. “And morning to you too, Remus.”

 

Placing himself on the bench with a content smile on his face, he said: “Good morning.”

 

Noticing the constant wiggling on your left, you turned to the source of said wiggling. “Are you going to stay here, or are you actually going to move?”

 

“I don’t know, I’m actually very comfortable here” he grinned while slinging his arms over your and Lily’s shoulders. Remus casually slid his arm behind you and slapped James on the back on his head. “Leaving, leaving!” James said, making you all laugh. He walked over to sit next to Sirius, and they ate peacefully – that is, as peaceful as they were physically possible.

 

“So” a boy a bit further on your left started, “I heard you gave Parkinson quite the payback yesterday?”

 

“Yeah” you grinned.

 

“Shame I didn’t see it. It sounded glorious.”

 

“Thanks, …”

 

“Frank Longbottom, and this is Alice Macmillan. We’re in our second year now.”

 

“Nice to meet you” the girl said.

 

“Likewise” you smiled. “And believe me, it was. Oh, the bats… They were everywhere…” You sighed dreamily, making them laugh.

 

“So we’ve heard. The story is really making its way around the school.”

 

“I just hope people make sure the teachers don’t hear them” you muttered, sipping your pumpkin juice.

 

“They won’t, don’t worry” he laughed. “Everybody likes seeing a Slytherin like Parkinson getting hexed – that is of course if she’s anything like her brother. And the Slytherins won’t talk either, given that Parnell drew his wand on you. Did he really try the Mutatio Skullus hex? I heard that one’s illegal” he rambled.

 

“I’m glad to hear that” you sighed in relief. “But now I have to face two hours of Potions with the Slytherins. Not exactly my idea of a good morning.”

 

“Well, at least they know not to mess with you now” Alice said. “But we’ve got to go, or we’ll be late. And so should you, if you’re having potions. See you!”

 

They left, and you all made your way to the dungeon a bit later. You arrived at the same time as the Slytherins, with the professor waiting for you.

 

“Come in, come in!” he greeted you.

 

“Hi Severus” you whispered to him. He hummed in response when Lily came to stand next to you as well.

 

“Well, let’s start with introductions, shall we?” the professor said. “I am professor Horace Slughorn, and will be teaching you potions – obviously. Now, you will all go in pairs and go to a table and write down as much as you know about the objects on your table. Meanwhile I will come around asking you about your names and some other things. Now, off you go!”

 

Lily paired with Severus again and Peter immediately went to Mary, never wanting to work with James again – _“Aww, come on! It was fun!”_ – so you went over to Remus. You both thought it was a good idea, until you heard James and Sirius snicker behind you.

 

“The damage those two could do…” you both sighed at the same time.

 

Thus, Remus dragged Sirius away and left James with you. The confused look on the latter’s face was quickly replaced with a grin when you explained: “You’d both be dangerous if you’d have brains, so no, we’re not letting you work together.”

 

“Aww, shame. Not that I mind working with you, however.”

 

You rolled your eyes but smiled, before dragging him off towards the nearest unoccupied table. “All right, let’s do this” you grinned.

 

“That’s a bezoar” he pointed out immediately. You started to scribble down on a piece of parchment right away. “It’s basically a stone that came out of the stomach of a goat, and can be used to save you from a lot of potions.” Next he pointed to a plant with blue flowers. “That’s aconite, also known as monkshood or wolfsbane, and has toxic leaves-”

 

“Very good” professor Slughorn interrupted him. “What’s your name?”

 

“James Potter, sir” he answered.

 

“Ah, yes, a Potter. And you, dear?”

 

“(Y/n) (l/n).”

 

“Hmm, that name doesn’t ring a bell. Were your parents wizards?”

 

“I don’t know, professor. I never knew them.”

 

“Ah, well, no problem there. You’re not the only one who doesn’t know anything about these classes yet. Don’t worry, I’ll go slow enough. Just make sure to stay close to someone like mister Potter here.”

 

 _‘Yeah, sure, go boost his ego some more’_ you thought, but just said: “Thank you, sir.”

 

When the professor turned away, you felt James hug you. “What. Are. You. Doing.”

 

“He just told you to stay close to people like me.”

 

“Let go before I hurt you” you stated calmly.

 

“Aww, you’re no fu-”

 

BANG.

 

The flasks and vials on your desk exploded, making you pull up your coat as protection out of reflex. Many students jumped, but you were fine. James however wasn’t as lucky, as two shards hurt him badly; one cut across his cheek and another left a nasty gash across his arm.

 

“SON OF A MERLIN” he cursed loudly, and stumbled backwards.

 

The professor turned around startled, demanding both you and other students what had happened. You didn’t have to guess, it was rather obvious that Parkinson had blown up your stuff, but you didn’t pay him any attention. Instead you turned to James, and directed him to sit on the table behind you. Pulling out your wand, you tried to remember the spells you had read the night before.

 

Stroking the tip of your wand over his arm, you uttered the spell quietly but clearly. “ _Vulnera Sanentur._ ” The wound sealed immediately, so you did the same to his cheek. Holding his chin in your one hand so that he wouldn’t move, you healed him with the other. Noticing the streaks of blood left on him, you took a bit more distance. “ _Tergeo_.” The blood was cleansed off in no time. It was only then that you noticed the absolute silence in the classroom.

 

Turning around, you found everyone – including professor Slughorn – staring at you. Most in awe, others *ahemParkinsoncough* in disgust.

 

“Twenty five- no, thirty points to Gryffindor” the professor said. “My dear, that is some complex sorcery what you just did. How did you learn those spells?”

 

“Uh, library?” you managed to say sheepishly and everything but intelligent-sounding.

 

“Very well done, I shall make sure to inform professor McGonagall of the young talent in her house. But the question remains, why _did_ you have to use those spells?”

 

All the Gryffindors’ heads shot to Petronilla immediately.

 

“Miss Parkinson, is there something you have to tell me?” he asked, barely containing his anger.

 

“N-no, professor” she squeaked.

 

“Hand over your wand, please.”

 

“But-“

 

“Your. Wand.”

 

Reluctantly she handed it over, and he inspected it closely before pulling out his own. “ _Priori Incantatem._ ” A red flash shot out of her wand, blowing up some books lying in the corner of the classroom.

 

He looked at her, anger clear in his eyes. “Forty-five points form Slytherin, plus two weeks of detention, to be decided by professor McGonagall, given that you injured one of her students.” Several Slytherins started to object, before he silenced them. “I would have taken as much as I had given to Gryffindor, would she not have lied to me. I will _not_ tolerate this behaviour, especially in my own house. Now clean up.”

 

She grumbled, and started to clean the mess she had made.

 

“Are you okay?” you asked James.

 

“I am now” he said while touching his cheek. “Merlin, how did you do that? Just by reading a book?”

 

You shrugged.

 

“Could you be _any_ more nonchalant?” Sirius said coming to stand next to you.

 

You shrugged again.

 

“Hey, since your stuff is basically, y’know, blown up, do you want to come work with us?” Remus proposed.

 

“Sounds good to me” James said, and you followed them to their table, leaving Parkinson to clean up her mess.

 

~ Time skip, brought to you by me, so that you don’t have to take too much classes. We’ve all had enough of school, haven’t we? ~

 

That night you couldn’t help but feel good about yourself. As you laid in bed you thought back to the look on Petronilla’s face during potions. A smile covered your features as you looked out of the window, at the beautiful almost full moon shining its light across the grounds. You quickly dozed off into  a careless sleep, constantly thinking about the books in the library.

 

Your first thought the next morning was: Saturday. _Finally._ The day went by quietly, not all that much happening. The only thing that was a bit strange was that Remus was feeling tired all day, and wasn’t all that talkative. You didn’t think all that much of it, until he didn’t show up for breakfast the next morning.

 

“Said he wasn’t feeling well” Sirius said when you asked where he was.

 

“He’s going to stay in bed all day” James added. “So we’re going to spend the day outside and exploring the castle. You know, to make sure we don’t bother him. You want to join us?”

 

You were about to say yes, when a thought suddenly popped up in your head. “Maybe later. There’s something I’ve got to do first.”

 

They just shrugged in response, and you finished your breakfast quickly. You got up, yelled a short ‘bye’ over your shoulder, and made your way out of the Great Hall. But instead of going up to the Gryffindor tower, you went down the stairs to the hallway that lead to the Hufflepuff common room. As you expected the walls were filled with paintings of food. One fruit bowl caught your attention, and you made a beeline towards it. Seeing the pear, you started to tickle it. It squirmed, laughed a little, and next thing you knew there was a door handle in its place.

 

You opened the door, and walked into a huge kitchen, with four tables in the middle. Now and then, plates appeared and were taken away by funny little creatures. _Elves_.

 

They all stared at you, until one of them stepped forward with a big smile on her face. “Miss (l/n)! It is so good to see you, miss!”

 

“It’s good to see you too, Pommy. How are you?”

 

“Oh, very well, miss! Very well indeed!”

 

“I’m glad to hear that” you smiled. “I was wondering, a friend of mine’s ill in bed, and I’d like to bring him something to eat. Do you think you could maybe-” Before you had even finished your sentence, ten elves were already hustling around. Not much later Pommy was holding a tray with a bit of everything on it.

 

“Will this do, miss?”

 

“Oh, yes! Thank you so much!” you smiled, and they all smiled back.

 

“It was no problem” she said. “Feel free to come by any time, miss.”

 

“I will, bye!”

 

They waved after you as you made your way out of the kitchen, and closed the door behind you. You went over to the Gryffindor common room, glad that most people were outside so that you didn’t pass anyone on the way – and _very_ relieved that you didn’t pass Peeves on the way. You had heard enough of the poltergeist from Frank to know that you’d better avoid him.

 

It was a bit hard to crawl through the portrait hole, but you managed to get yourself and the food in front of the boys’ dormitories in one piece. Balancing the tray on one hand, you lightly knocked on the door.

 

No answer. Oh well.

 

You opened the door and walked into a similar room to yours. Four beds instead of three, and in the one on your far right laid your friend.

 

“Remus?” you called. A groan sounded in response.

 

“What are you doing here?” came from under the covers.

 

“I got you breakfast.” You walked towards his bed. You set the tray down on his nightstand, and sat down carefully on the edge of his bed. “Do you want me to go call madam Pomfrey?”

 

“Hmm, no…”

 

Your eyes landed on a smudge of red on his pillow. “Remus, are you… bleeding?”

 

Even though he was covered by blankets, you could see him stiffen. “… No.”

 

“Remus, please show me your face?”

 

“I don’t want to.”

 

“Remus” you said sternly.

 

You could basically feel him hesitate, before the covers slowly slid down. His eyes were bloodshot, didn’t meet yours, and a long cut covered his temple.

 

Just like you had done the day before, you pulled out your wand and healed the cut without hesitation. When it was gone, you both sat quietly for a minute.

 

“Can you tell me?”

 

He sighed, clearly not wanting to. He didn’t have to however, because it didn’t take long for you to start putting things together.

 

_The books in the library._

 

_Mindless beasts._

 

_Almost full moon._

 

_He doesn’t want me to know._

 

_Remus._

 

_He doesn’t want me to know._

 

_Lupin._

 

_He doesn’t want me to know._

 

_Full moon._

 

_“Werewolf.”_

 

You didn’t know you had actually spoken the word until his eyes shot up to meet yours. Tears filled them, and he started to crawl back a little. Your hand closed around his arm.

 

“I won’t tell anyone” you promised. A tear fell from his eye, and you slung hour arms around him. He sobbed in your shoulder as you patted the back of his head. “It’s okay, Remus. It’s okay” you repeated.

 

And you’d keep repeating it until he’d believe it himself.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own anything, and took some descriptions literally from either the books or pottermore.  
> I don't own you either, but I'd say that's kind of obvious.


	10. First year; a summary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> x First Year x

_That had been your glorious first week at Hogwarts. You quickly got the reputation of ‘don’t mess with me or I’ll bat up your face’, but you never (well, hardly ever,) got into trouble again. The others however became either the funny first-years or the pesky prats, depending on what house you were in._

 

_Lily didn’t like it one bit._

 

_Don’t get me wrong, she was still a very close friend, but you deliberately avoided the topic of pranking. This wordless agreement had been settled after a discussion you had had in the girls’ dormitories one evening._

 

*EERrwWwoooooSHHHhEERrwWwoooooSHHHhEERrwWwoooooSHHHh FLASHBACK*

 

“Don’t forget to think of a cool group name!” James yelled after you as you walked up the stairs with the other girls to drop your books before dinner. It was now October, nearing Halloween. His voice and Remus’ followed you as you mounted the stairs, engaging another conversation about why exactly they needed a name. Remus didn’t see the use of it. James loved the idea.

 

“I don’t like it, what they do” Lily huffed, getting your attention.

 

“C’mon Lily, it are just some pranks” you smiled as you dropped your books on your bed. “Besides nobody gets-“

 

“If you’re going to say ‘hurt’ I swear to Merlin I will scream” she hissed. “Physically they might be fine, but you _are_ hurting their feelings (y/n).”

 

You were close to saying _‘what feelings?_ ’ but decided against it. “Hey now, _I_ ’m not the one pranking them all the time” you said raising your hands in defence.

 

“No, but you _are_ supporting them all the time!”

 

“Can’t help it if they’re funny!”

 

“Funny? You call that funny? (Y/n), they’re terrorising the school! Just boasting around all the time, doing what they want, just – marauding the place!”

 

“Mar- don’t be ridiculous, they’re not- that’s completely-“ you stuttered.

 

“They _are_ , and it’s bloody annoying.”

 

You sighed and pinched the bridge of your nose. “Look, I guess I kind of maybe understand why you don’t like them all that much. But they’re my friends, Lil’. You can’t just expect me not to hang out with them.”

 

She sighed. “I know, I’m just-” _disappointed._

 

You both heard it in your heads, but no-one dared to say the word. “Hey, I get it. It’s fine” you said while walking towards the door. “See you at dinner?”

 

“Yeah, sure” she responded while you walked outside.

 

Closing the door behind you, you sighed. “Marauding the place, don’t be daft” you muttered as you walked back downstairs. When you sat yourself next to Remus tiredly, he could see by the expression on your face that something was up. Well, everybody could, but he was the one to bring it up.

 

“Had an argument?” he asked.

 

“It’s that obvious, huh?”

 

“I wouldn’t exactly say that, but if your pout were to be be any lower it would end up in potions class.”

 

“Gee, thanks Rémy.”

 

“Anytime, kiddo.”

 

“So, what happened?” Sirius asked, before you could make a snarky remark.

 

You sighed. “She doesn’t like the pranks you pull, which makes me the bad guy too given that I hang out with you guys and may or may not provide you with some ideas from time to time.”

 

“Well would you look at that, miss Evans does not like our craftsmanship” he snorted.

 

“She’s just way too kind to be into that, y’know?” James said.

 

“I know, but she just went on and on about it. Saying we terrorise the school-”

 

“We do” Sirius interrupted shortly.

 

“-go boasting around all the time-”

 

“That one as well.”

 

“-do whatever we want-“

 

“That one’s my favourite.”

 

“-and just go marauding the place! We’re not marauders! I mean, maybe a little bit, but…”

 

“… Marauders…” James said, tilting his head. “Hmm. Marauders.” It was like he was tasting the word on his tongue. “Has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?”

 

“Merlin, is this about the group name again?” Remus sighed.

 

“What? It sounds cool!”

 

“It kind of does” Sirius agreed. Peter just nodded. It was the first thing he did really, since you came downstairs again. You thought about it, about the name going around the school.

 

“Well I’ll be damned. It really does sound cool” you admitted. Remus just groaned.

 

“Seriously (y/n)? I thought you were the other smart one of the group.”

 

“Aww, come on Rémy! It _does_ sound cool!” you said as you jumped up excitedly, standing on the couch. “Just imagine, the name going around the school, raising hope to those poor students who want nothing more than to have some fun –“ during your exited speech you had somehow climbed on higher and were now balancing on the back of the couch “-and striking fear into the hearts of the slimy gits crawling through the halls!”

 

“You mean Slytherins” James said, otherwise entirely excited about your speech.

 

“Aww c’mon, Sev’ is cool!” you whined.

 

“He’s the slimiest of them all” Sirius deadpanned.

 

“Do you want me on your side or not?”

 

“Apologies, continue.”

 

“As I was saying: we’ll be awesome, heroic, funny, awesome, great, even more awesome, and I’m losing adjectives here, but we’ll be really cool- and that all because of a super duper group name. WE. ARE. MARAUDERS!”

 

James, Sirius and Peter – as well as some other people in the common room – clapped as you ended your speech, and you threw your arms up in victory.

 

Said action made you lose your balance however, meaning that you were now falling towards the ground -  or more precisely, James and Sirius.

 

When Remus looks up from his book again in response to a wave of ‘ouch’s’ going to the common room, he was met with the sight of tangled limbs and scrunched up faces.

 

“I’m fine!” you yelled as you threw your thumbs up.

 

“Yeah, totally not fine” James groaned.

 

“Oh stop being such a baby.”

 

“I’m not a baby.”

 

“Yes you are.”

 

“Am not.”

 

“Are too!”

 

“Am not!”

 

“Are too!”

 

“Am not!”

 

“Am not!”

 

“Are too!”

 

“HAH!”

 

“NOT FAIR!”

 

“NOT MY FAULT YOU’RE DUMB!”

 

“I’M NOT DUMB!”

 

“YES YOU ARE YOU’RE A DUMB BABY.”

 

“AM NOT.”

 

“James, are you sure you want to play that game again? It always ends the same way.”

 

“NO-ONE ASKED YOU, BLACK.”

 

“WELL, MAYBE YOU SHOULD HAVE, MAYBE THEN YOU WOULDN’T BE THIS DUMB, _POTTER_ ”

 

Ah, yes… What a beautiful beginning for the Marauders…

 

_Otherwise than that, nothing much had happened the first year. Well, of course there were those Christmas holidays…_

 

*EERrwWwoooooSHHHhEERrwWwoooooSHHHhEERrwWwoooooSHHHh NEXT FLASHBACK*

 

It was the night of New Year’s eve, when Remus was looking exhausted. You knew why it was of course, but the others didn’t. You hated to see him like this, knowing what would come next. You knew he’d go through pain, but you’d always be there for him in the mornings. Problem was; the next day everyone would sleep in, and it’d be really hard for you to sneak into his room, so you decided on the following; he’d sleep in the common room and you’d wake up early to help him, so that he could just go lay in bed again.

 

So, the morning on January the first, you crept out of your bed and walked down the stairs on your fuzzy socks. When you made it to the common room without tripping – everyone was always surprised at exactly how much you fell down the stairs – you immediately noticed the bundle of blankets lying on the couch. Approaching slowly, you whispered: “Remus? ‘s that you?”

 

The bundle stirred, and a sleepy head popped out on the end.

 

You chuckled. “Good morning, Sleeping Beauty.” He groaned as you walked closer, and when you knelt down beside the couch you asked: “Are you okay?”

 

“Hmm, it’s just my shoulder this time.” When he went to sit up, he hissed. It wasn’t hard to guess why though. When the blanket fell down his side, a big red stain coloured his white shirt. “Damnit” he muttered, “must’ve opened again while I slept.”

 

“Shirt off” you ordered calmly. You ended up doing it for him however, as it would hurt too much to use his left arm. When it was unbuttoned, you slid the cloth gently off his back. He hissed again.

 

“Sorry” you muttered as you inspected the wound and drew out your wand.

 

“ _Vulnera Sanentur. Tergeo._ ” you said, and the gash closed immediately, followed by the blood on his skin and shirt disappearing.

 

He sighed immediately in relief. “Thanks (y/n)” he murmured.

 

“Anytime, Remus. Now, let’s get you back to your room.” You helped him get up, and walked with him to the stairs of his dormitories. When he mounted the stairs you asked him if he was sure he was okay.

 

“I’m fine, (y/n). You should probably get some sleep too, last night was late for all of us.”

 

You nodded and turned away, but you hadn’t ever reached your own stairs until you heard your name being called out. You rushed back to Remus, to see him standing frozen in his doorway. You didn’t need to ask what was wrong, because you could see it for yourself. The room was _empty_.

 

“Well, this is… unexpected. Maybe they’ve already gone downstairs for breakfast?” you said.

 

“I doubt it” he said as he closed the door behind you both after you walked in. You both sat down on his bed in silence. It didn’t last long however, as the next moment the other Marauders walked in. Sirius came in first, then James followed by Peter. None of them said a thing as Peter closed the door. James was the first to speak.

 

“So, a werewolf, huh?” he said more than asked. Remus stiffened next to you, and you laid your hand on his arm. “And don’t go saying that you don’t know what we’re talking about.”

 

“I wasn’t going to” Remus whispered so quietly that you all barely heard. “How- how’d you find out?”

 

“We aren’t thick, you know. It wasn’t that hard with you disappearing every month – on a full moon, to be precise. Well, the scars you have give us a little hit too.”

 

Remus seemed to be feeling smaller by the second, if it were even possible.

 

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Sirius asked stoically.

 

Remus looked like he really didn’t want to answer that question, so you did for him. “Do you really need to ask that question?” All three heads snapped in your direction. “I mean, what did you even expect? For him to just say ‘Hey guys, isn’t it a lovely morning? Ah yes, and guess what, I’m a werewolf! Surprise!’ I don’t think so.”

 

“He told you” James said quietly.

 

“Correction: I found out. I’ve been healing him ever since the first time I saw him like this.”

 

“But he could have said _something_ …” Peter muttered after a small moment of silence.

 

“In all honesty: would you have?”

 

No-one responded to this.

 

“That’s what I thought” you huffed. “Look, I understand that you liked to hear this from him, but it’s up to him to tell this to whomever he wants, and not up to us. And even if you did find out; don’t confront him about it like this!”

 

“(Y/n), it’s okay…” Remus sighed. “I- I’m sorry you guys, I wanted to tell you, but… Werewolves aren’t exactly that.. Loved.”

“I guess I was just afraid of what you’d think of me…”

 

After a little while of waiting for anyone to say anything, Sirius flopped down the bed next to Remus and draped his arm over the other’s shoulder. “Well, that’s just daft. I don’t mind your furry little problem.”

 

James came sitting between you and Remus and said: “Personally, I find it kinda cool.”

 

“You’re still our friend, Remus” Peter said as he came to sit behind you four. “You’ll always be.”

 

Remus suddenly stood up, turning towards you with a sad frown covering his face. “N- no, you don’t understand, I- I could hurt you guys.”

 

“And I can make bats fly out of your nose. As long as you don’t piss me off, I won’t!”

 

“And as long as we don’t piss off your ‘furry little problem’ as Sirius said it so beautifully-“

 

“Why, thank you James.”

 

“-no problem – then you won’t hurt us either” they finished your sentence.

 

Remus still had doubt in his eyes, while yours held only a mischievous glint.

 

“GROUP HUG!”

 

“NonONOGUYS OOMPF!” Remus screamed as the four of you jumped him and landed on the bed next to his – Peter’s to be precise.

 

Result: a pile of cuddling kids with a pained “what was that about not pissing off my furry little problem?” coming from the bottom.

 

_Ah yes, first year was fun._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one took me so long, but school's been killing me lately...
> 
> I don't own anything, and took some descriptions literally from either the books or pottermore.  
> I don't own you either, but I'd say that's kind of obvious.


	11. Letters and letters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> x First Year x

Those two events weren’t the only things that made your first year fun, because you monthly wrote a letter to mister Ollivander, to which he’d always reply. When an owl would swoop in during breakfast and drop said reply on your lap, you’d always drop everything to read it immediately. They made your day a bit brighter, and you wouldn’t stop smiling for the rest of the day – a fact that James and Sirius never failed to point out. It didn’t matter to you. Mister Ollivander was the closest thing to a father you’d ever had.

 

 

_Dear mister Ollivander_

_I promised to write you a letter, so here it is! And I’ll start of by saying that I’m sorted into Gryffindor! I’ve made some lovely friends already, and most of them are in Gryffindor too. There’s one kid in Slytherin however, his name is Severus Snape. He’s a bit strange, but he’s nice once you get to know him. He’s a good friend of Lily’s, a friend in my house. The others like to tease him though. James Potter, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin – although the latter doesn’t really bother all that much. He’s the kind of kid that rolls his eyes, sighs and buries his nose in his book again. He’s nice, they all are. Then there’s Mary, she’s also a good friend of mine, and in my house as well. I spend most of my time with her and Lily. They’re real sweethearts. The classes are fun, though I’m not that good at potions, and History of Magic is a bit boring. I do love Transfiguration, and I’m good at it too! I’ve got to go now, we’re about to have flying class. (At first I was a bit scared, but Sirius helped me and now it’s loads of fun! I like him, he’s a good friend.) Thanks again for all that you’ve done for me, if it weren’t for you I wouldn’t be here now._

_(Y/n)_

 

 

**Dear (y/n)**

**It’s lovely to hear from you, and congratulations on getting into Gryffindor, the house suits you! I’m also glad to read that you’ve already made friends – though I didn’t worry for one second about that. I remember the kids you wrote me about, from when they bought their wands. They sound like good people, though some might be a bit more mischievous than others, hmm? Make sure to keep your friends close though, there might be some people at Hogwarts who won’t be all that kind. You know I don’t like to badmouth people, but some might deem themselves better than you. However, as long as you don’t believe that for one second, you’ll be fine. So, Transfiguration is your favourite class? Professor McGonagall teaches it, no? And how is your wand doing, hopefully not too bashed up? Take care of it, dear. It was indeed nice of that Sirius to help you with flying, and I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself. Lots of luck,**

**G. Ollivander**

 

 

_Dear mister Ollivander_

_You’re right, some are indeed more mischievous than others. James and Sirius like to prank people, though I hardly ever get involved. Okay, I might have hexed a girl once, made bats flying out her nose, but she had it coming. She was one of the people you were writing about, that might deem themselves better than me. Lily didn’t like it though, so we don’t really talk about things like that. And yes, professor McGonagall teaches us Transfiguration. And my wand is doing very well, I’m taking very good care of it, thank you very much. I wouldn’t dare to come back with a broken wand! And what I forgot to tell you last time; there are house elves here! Did you know? I was really surprised when I met one. Her name is Pommy, and she’s too sweet! They make dinner and everything. And Halloween’s coming up soon, I’m excited about the feast. I’ve heard a lot about it, saying that it’s magical. Well, more magical than the school already is anyway. Miss you,_

_(Y/n)_

 

 

**Dear (y/n)**

**Did you really hex a student? I have to say that I didn’t expect this from you. I hope you didn’t get in trouble for it. Lily sounds like a clever girl, not liking this behaviour. Though, honestly, a bit of well-placed trouble has never hurt anyone. Don’t push your luck too far though, before you know it some prank might backfire. It doesn’t surprise me that there are elves at the school, who else would keep your beds warm? The professors? Have fun at the feast, dear. It’ll do you well – though keep in mind to extra avoid Peeves that night, he’s always up to something when a special event takes place. (You might want to take an umbrella, just in case.) Miss you too, do you feel like coming over during the Christmas holidays, even if just for a weekend?**

**G. Ollivander**

 

 

These letters continued over the whole year, and for Christmas – when you had taken up his offer and stayed in Diagon Alley for a weekend – he gave you a wand polishing set. You rolled your eyes with a grin, but gave him a big hug nonetheless. It was your first Christmas present ever, and you loved it.

 

Though, at the end of the year you slowly became more wary. You’d have to go back to the orphanage, given that the agreement between miss Vanstout and professor Dumbledore only lasted for ten months. You didn’t like it one bit, and it showed. Lily would have none of it, and made you focus entirely on your exams.

 

“But this is so boooooring!!” you whined with your head resting on your notes of History of Magic.

 

“It doesn’t matter if it’s boring, you’ve got to know this! Now, who was Uric the Oddball?” Lily sighed.

 

“Don’t bother, Lily” Remus said, “You’ve got to encourage her.” You heard some fumbling, some tearing, and then a glorious scent entered your nose and filled your head.

 

“CHOCOLATE” you shout up, and looked around to find the source. Remus was dangling a little open package between his fingers. “Oh, you’re mean…”

 

“Alright, Uric the Oddball” Remus tried again.

 

“Uric the Oddball was a medieval wizard who became famous for his eccentric behaviour such as wearing a jellyfish as a hat and sleeping in a room with fifty pet Augureys. He is considered to be one of the weirdest wizards in history and as such is often the punchline of wizarding jokes now GIMMEEEEE” you reached fur the chocolate, before Remus threw one into your mouth. Lily looked at you two disbelievingly, first at a grinning Remus, then at you happily munching. You swallowed. “All right, next?”

 

Let’s just say that you owned the exam.

 

You owned Transfiguration as well, having to turn a mouse into a snuff box. It was fairly easy, and you walked outside with a happy feeling.

 

Charms was a bit tricky; you had to make an apple tap-dance; hard enough given that apples don’t have feet, and you accidentally made it river dance instead. You didn’t think that professor Flitwick minded though, he still found it funny.

 

Potions went better, to your surprise. You had studied with James, who thought you were miserable – you truly were – though you could make a decent cure for boils. Lucky you; the assignment was to do exactly that. Professor Slughorn nodded approvingly when he inspected your cauldron, so you left with a content feeling.

 

Defence against the Dark Arts was plain easy, though Peter disagreed; he thought it was horrible. It was probably because you knew how to block a spell, and he, well, let’s say that he came out of the classroom tap-dancing, not knowing how to stop. (Again with the tap-dancing.)

 

Then came Herbology; re-potting a mandrake was easy enough. Astronomy was hard given that you kept confusing all those moons. ( _Thank goodness Lily has a big handwriting._ )

 

The exams ended with flying. You had to fly through a parkour, and it was _fun_. Lily and Peter made it through okay, James and Sirius raced each other (James won, but according to Sirius because he cheated), Remus and Severus swiftly flew across the parkour, and you, well, you just decided to have fun. Given that Sirius had taught you, you rocked the exam. When you got off your broom, he walked over to you, bowed, and said “You did well, my student” to which you replied: “Xièxiè, master.”

 

Because you could.

 

On the day you received your results, emotions varied from calm, to nervous, to straight out frightened. You were somewhere between the first two. When professor McGonagall came to hand out the Papers of Doom, as James and Sirius called them to ‘tease’ Peter, the table went silent. When she handed you yours, you thought you saw the faintest of smiles across her face. Unrolling the parchment, you read:

 

Outstanding > Exceeds Expectations > Acceptable > Poor > Dreadful > Troll

                History of magic: E

                Transfiguration: O

                Charms: E

                Potions: E

                Defence against the Dark Arts: O

                Herbology: E

                Astronomy: E

                Flying: O

 

A big smile lit your face as the others started to compare their results.

 

“HA, FOUR O’S, SUCK IT BLACK.”

 

“YOU SUCK IT POTTER, I’VE GOT FOUR AS WELL.”

 

“Is it a coincidence that you’ve got O’s on the exact same classes?”

 

“You can’t prove anything, Remus.”

 

“What classes are those?”

 

“Well, Peter, those would be Charms, Potions, Defence against the Dark Arts and Flying.”

 

“Oh, no Transfiguration?”

 

“Don’t be daft, who would ever get an O with Transfiguration? No one gets an O with Minnie.”

 

“Wouldn’t be so sure about that James, looks like (y/n) did.”

 

“What are you talking about Lupin? That’s ridiculous! Potter, get her results, would ya?”

 

“On it, Black.”

 

The parchment was snatched out of your hands, and you looked up with a ‘hey!’ Nobody responded however, as the girls were still reading their own results, as was Peter, and Remus was looking amusedly at James and Sirius in shock.

 

“You’ve-“

 

“An O-“

 

“WITH MINNIE?”

 

“Congratulations, you can read” you deadpanned.

 

“…”

 

“…”

 

“Looks like someone’s got a favourite…”

 

~ Time skip in one, two, three, FOURTEEN! *dunndundundunndunn dundunnnnn duhduhduhduhduhdunnnnn* ~

 

The train had arrived at the station in London, and you all got off feeling a bit sad. Sirius and you felt the worst, given that you didn’t exactly have a nice place to go home to. He had made a deal with James however, that they’d write and visit as often as possible. You weren’t sure if you’d be able to see them again until September, so you gave all of them a big hug, before moving to leave the station. You had walked a bit further, leaving them all with their families/friends, when you saw a familiar face. Although, it wasn’t the familiar face you had been expecting.

 

“Mister Ollivander!” you exclaimed, and hugged him.

 

He laughed, and said: “It’s good to see you too (y/n).” When you asked him why he was here, he answered: “I’ve got a little something for you.” He reached into a pocked of his coat, and took out a piece of paper with a ribbon around it. You looked at it curiously when he handed it to you, and slid off the red piece of fabric. Unrolling it, you read only read the title before tears filled your eyes:

 

**Agreement of Adoption**

 

You wrapped your arms around him again, as you sobbed into his chest.

 

“You- you’d do that for me?”

 

“Of course, you’re a wonderful girl, and you deserve a home. I’d be honoured if I could be the one to provide it to you.”

 

You hugged him one last time before saying “I’ll be right back”, and dashing off.

 

Running through the crowd, you saw that all your friends were still standing in a group, except for Severus. “GUYS!” you yelled from a distance.

 

“Is that (y/n)?” Lily asked turning around.

 

“GUYS! I’M GETTING ADOPTED!” you yelled as you jumped onto Remus’ back.

 

“You- what?” James stuttered, completely taken aback.

 

“I’m getting adopted! Mister Ollivander has agreed to take me in!”

 

“(Y/n), that’s wonderful news!” Mary exclaimed. “Now get off there so that we can give you a hug!”

 

You leapt off Remus’ back, and were engulfed in six pairs of arms immediately. It wasn’t until they broke away that a female voice behind you said: “James, aren’t you going to introduce us?”

 

“Oh, right! Mum, dad, this is (y/n) (l/n), or (y/n) Ollivander, I don’t know how that’ll be from now on. Anyway, she’s a good friend of mine, marvellous at healing and Transfiguration, though don’t let her near a cauldron, she’ll blow up the house before you can say ‘quidditch’.”

 

“Nice to meet- hey! I had an ‘E’ on my exam!”

 

“Yes, because he asked the only thing you could make.”

 

“Well, I still didn’t blow up the place, did I?”

 

“No, because I’m a wonderful teacher.”

 

“Well, given your earlier description, obviously not, are you? Pine cone breath!”

 

“Crusty tail!”

 

“Twig legs!”

 

“Big nose!”

 

During your bickering, you hadn’t noticed Mr. Ollivander joining the group. He looked at you both with an amused look, before Lily turned to both him and James’ parents.

 

“Don’t worry, they’re always like this."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHERE ARE THE BROTHER BEAR FANS??!!
> 
> U2?!
> 
> ... No? Ok then, sorry ^-^'
> 
> I don't own anything, and took some descriptions literally from either the books, pottermore or harry potter wikia.  
> I don't own you either, but I'd say that's kind of obvious.


	12. Beware of the mudbloods

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> x Summer between first and second year x

You were in the back of the shop when the door opened and new customers walked in. You head the little bell ring again as the door closed, accompanied by some footsteps. You didn’t really pay attention to what was being said – you would hardly understand anyways – and kept on storing the wands, humming quietly under your breath. It wasn’t until your name was called out that you looked up.

 

“Coming!” you called back, put the wands away and walked to the front of the shop with a skip in your step. When you arrived there, you saw a young boy with his parents: both adults looked severe, while the boy was merely shy.

 

“This is (y/n), my daughter” Mr. Ollivander introduced you proudly. “(Y/n), these are Mr. and Mrs. Black, and their son, Regulus. He’s starting Hogwarts this year.”

 

_‘Sirius’ parents?’_

 

“How lovely to meet you” the mother said with a forced smile. “We’ve heard a lot about you this summer – which is remarkable, given that Sirius never talks that much.”

 

“How fortunate that Mr. Ollivander was so kind to adopt you” the father added. “Now, I do believe we have some shopping to do?”

 

“Ah, yes, I’ll leave you to it then. It was nice to meet you” you said. You turned around to leave, but before you could even take a step, the bell by the door jingled again. A familiar voice floated through the shop.

 

“Hey mum, have you seen my…” the voice drifted off as you turned around. “… books.”

 

“Black” you greeted him with a grin.

 

‘(L/n)” he greeted back, flashing a smile that matched yours. Running forward simultaneously, you leapt into each other’s arms, squeezing the life out of one another.

 

“Yes, I have your books right here” Mrs. Black interrupted your happy meeting.

 

You parted immediately, and he coughed awkwardly. “Uh, thanks.”

 

His mother turned back to your new father, and you grabbed his hand. “C’mon, I’ll show you my room” you whispered, and dragged through the shop, to the back and up the stairs. You opened a door on the end of the hallway, which lead to a small but cosy room. It had a dark wooden floor, old grey wallpaper that was slightly peeling off at the edges and an average-sized window, looking out over Diagon Alley. You had a small bed, a closet for your clothes, a writing desk and a bookshelf, and it was all you ever wanted. “Isn’t it perfect?” you exclaimed proudly, raising your arms and spinning around. “I know it isn’t much but…”

 

“It’s you” he finished your sentence. “I have to say, I really like the view” he added, walking over to your window. You could see all the way to Gringotts Bank, where the street took a turn and disappeared from sight.

 

“Yeah, it’s really nice. I like sitting up here and watching the people walk by, when I’m not helping in the shop of course. I saw Remus like that once.”

 

“You saw Remus already?”

 

“Yeah, a couple of weeks ago. He always gets his stuff early.”

 

“How was he doing?”

 

“He was fine, had a rough full moon though. By the way, how are _you_ doing? I’ve met your parents, they’re a bit, uh, how to say it…”

 

“Gits?”

 

“Thank goodness, I didn’t want to say it myself” you laughed, making him snigger too.

 

“Yeah, well, I’m fine, I guess. They’re really disappointed I didn’t end up in Slytherin, but hey, what’re you going to do about it? Right now all eyes are turning to Regulus though, hoping he’ll do ‘better’, ‘s like I didn’t even happen.”

 

“I’m sorry to hear that, Sirius” you said while laying a hand on his shoulder. “How about we go for a walk, to cheer you up a bit? I’ll buy you ice cream~” you ended in a singing voice.

 

“Deal” he smirked and sprinted out of your room with you right behind him. You darted through the shop, straight through the door, not even pausing to say bye to your dad – he knew where you were going. Not long afterwards, you arrived at the ice cream stand, slightly panting.

 

“All right, what flavour?” you asked him.

 

“Pumpkin, please.”

 

“All right, one pumpkin, and one banana please” you asked the man as you handed over a sickle. He handed you the cold delights and some change, and not long afterwards you were sitting on the side of the pavement, watching the people walk by.

 

“So, have you already seen anyone else?” he asked after a few moments of silence.

 

“Only Remus and Mary. Oh, and I’ve seen Frank Longbottom too, but he was too busy trailing after his mother to have a chat” you giggled. “I must’ve missed Lily and Peter though. As for James, he probably hasn’t even read his letters yet.”

 

“Oh, (y/n) how you wound me” a voice piped up behind you. Turning around, you saw James standing behind you with a smirk on his face and an ice cream in his hands – strawberry, banana and strawberry once more, to be precise.

 

“Merlin, James, can’t you say hello like a normal person?” Sirius laughed.

 

“Of course not, who do you think you’re talking to? Normal isn’t in my dictionary.”

 

“You don’t have a dictionary” you deadpanned. “All that you have right now is an absurdly large ice cream that’s malting way too fast.”

 

“Bloody hell – lick – you’re right. This – lick – thing is going down like – lick – Snape’s mood – lick – when he sees me.”

 

“Feeling some Gryffindor pride, are we?” Sirius said, referring to his colours.

 

“Glad you noticed – lick – dearest friend. Oh – lick – and hello by the way – lick – I couldn’t greet you properly because _someone_ made the hurtful – lick – comment that I hadn’t – lick – read my letter yet.”

 

“You _haven’t_ read your letter James,” a woman said, “I did, and you’re making me buy all your stuff.”

 

“Hello Mrs. Potter, it’s good to see you again” you smiled.

 

“Good to see you too, and you as well, of course” she said, turning to Sirius. Then she faced her son again. “Didn’t I tell you to pick only two – and not three – at the ice cream stand?”

 

“Indeed mother dear. Lick. You told me to pick two flavours – lick – which I did.”

 

“You’re impossible” both you and Mrs Potter sighed at the same time, making both boys laugh.

 

“Ooh, mum, have you gotten my new broom yet?” James suddenly exclaimed.

 

“No, Jamie dear, mommy’s been too busy getting all your stuff while you’re sitting on your lazy bum eating ice cream.”

 

“Don’t you already have a broom?” you asked.

 

“Yeah – lick – but I’m trying out for the quidditch team this year. Lick. If I want to make it, I’ll need a faster one. Lick. I’m going for seeker, you see.”

 

“Yes, well, let’s get you a broom first, shall we?” his mother said. “Sirius, (y/n), it was lovely seeing you again. Come on James.”

 

“See you guys on the first!” he yelled over his shoulder while following her. You both waved him off, and were about to start talking again, when Regulus arrived.

 

“Sirius, mum wants to leave” he said curtly.

 

“Already?” Sirius whined.

 

“Well, unless you want her throwing a rant over how you should ‘stop hanging around with mudbloods or she’ll have you disowned’, you’d better hurry up.”

 

“Ooh, am I the mudblood?” you asked with a grin.

 

“Oh, I- uh- I didn’t mean to-“ he stuttered.

 

“Of course you didn’t” Sirius rolled his eyes.

 

“Aw, come on Black, it’s fine. And quite frankly, it’s got a nice ring to it. ‘Beware of the mudbloods’” you ended in a doomy voice.

 

“Of course you’d say that” Sirius laughed, and you thought you was a small smile spread on Regulus’ face too.

 

“So, Regulus,” you said, turning to the younger brother, “you’re going to Hogwarts too, huh? Any preference of house? I mean, I’ve heard your family wants you to end up in Slytherin, but what do _you_ want?”

 

Your question startled him. He was about to answer when a highly unpleasant voice pierced the air. “Regulus! Sirius! Didn’t I tell you we were leaving?”

 

“Aaaaaand there goes my mood” Sirius sighed as the three of you watched their mother making her way towards you, while screeching and ‘slightly’ making a scene.

 

“You’ll live” you said drily. “I’ll see you at Kings Cross” you said as you got up and fled the scene. Sirius was one of your best friends, but there was no way you’d ever face his angry mother willingly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

****** Extended ending ******

 

 

 

The day after, you walked to the beginning of Diagon Alley, to the Leaky Cauldron. You walked through the pub and nodded kindly to the woman behind the bar. She nodded back, obviously remembering you from a year ago.

 

Walking out into the chilly night’s air again, you walked to the edge of the sidewalk and held up your wand hand.

 

Not seconds after, a loud bang echoed through the streets of central London, and a smile spread on your lips.

 

“Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard-“

 

“Hello Ernie. Here’s fifteen Sickles, as promised.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SOOOOOO SORRY FOR THE LATE UPDATE I'M SO TERRIBLE BUT I'M TRYYYYINNGGG..... *sobs*
> 
> I don't own anything, and took some descriptions literally from either the books, pottermore or harry potter wikia.
> 
> I don't own you either, but I'd say that's kind of obvious.


	13. In this together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> x Second Year x

One day, when you and your father were eating, he suddenly became serious. He laid down his fork and knife, and he began to talk. “(Y/n), listen to me for a moment. Maybe you’ve read about it in the Daily Prophet, but during this summer, some people have gone missing.”

The serious statement startled you, and you looked up. “What, d’you mean those muggles?”

“Yes, those. Those disappearings are caused by some wizards, who deem themselves better than others, because they’re pure blood. I know that at Hogwarts, there isn’t all that much danger, but I want you to be careful nonetheless. Do you understand that?”

“Yes, dad” you said.

“And also, when anyone, and I mean _anyone_ , makes nasty remarks about you or your heritage, I want you to write me, all right? These disappearances have been going on for a while now, and I can’t help but feel that there are _some_ in your school whose families would sympathise with such ideas.”

“And with ‘some families’, I take it you might mean, amongst others, the Black family?”

He smiled a little and said in a rather proud tone: “You really are one to pick up things quickly, I can never hide things from you. Are you sure you’re not a Ravenclaw?”

You laughed. “Oh believe me, I’m sure. And I promise I’ll be careful.”

“That’s my good girl” he said while kissing the top of your head. “Now finish your plate, before your food gets cold.”

…

“Oh, yes, and I almost forgot. An owl came in this morning from professor Dumbledore. It said something about fifty pounds being paid back?”

He noticed the redness of your cheeks, and continued eating in silence with a small smile on his face.

~ Le Time Skip, given to you by Kylo You Had To Mess Everything Up Ren ~

The first of September arrived quickly. You had packed a week in advance, and were ready to go in the morning. Walking down the stairs, you were feeling both thrilled and a bit down. Sure, you were excited to return to Hogwarts, but this place had become a home as well, and you didn’t like leaving Mr Ollivander either. Your thoughts were interrupted when you heard a strange screech coming out of the shop.

“Dad?” you called out, feeling a bit worried.

“I’m in here!” he said, head popping from around the corner.

“What was that noise?” you asked, but your question was answered immediately when you walked into the shop. There, on the counter, stood a fairly sized cage, with an owl inside. The bird let out a hoot when it saw you, and stared at you with eyes as big as your own.

“I thought you might like some company, and it would be easier to write letters this way” he smiled. It was a barn owl with big, brown eyes. “You can choose his name” your dad said.

You hugged him, hummed in thought, and said: “I’ll think about one.”

“Very good, now, let’s go, shall we?”

You took your trunk and owl, dragging them with you into Diagon Alley. Once you had exited the Leaky Cauldron, it was only a half an hour long walk to the station. He again checked multiple times if you had your wand with you, and you didn’t speak about much other things. It wasn’t until you had gained the courage to ask him a question that had been bothering you for a while now, that you spoke up.

“Hey, dad? Those disappearings you’ve told me about, what’s up with them? I mean, h- how long is this going to last?”

His brows furrowed and you could see the conflict in his eyes. Ah, yes, to assure you that everything would be fine, or to tell you the truth? He chose the latter.

“Honestly, I don’t know. This situation has been going on for over a year, and it doesn’t look like things are going to get better soon. There’s a man – wizard – who calls himself the Dark Lord. He and his followers do not approve of muggles and muggle-born wizards, that which I have told you earlier this summer. They call themselves Death Eaters. Be careful when you hear those names (y/n), they are dangerous. I do not know when this situation is going to end, I hope soon, but I fear the worst. I fear that this is only the beginning.”

You took a moment to take it all in, before you broke the silence again.

“Thank you. For not lying to me.”

“No problem. Now hush, we’re here.” You stopped in front of the wall you fell through a year ago. Casually leaning against it, you repeated the action.

When you arrived on the platform, all earlier thoughts left you, and happier ones came instead. It was only then that you realised how much you had missed this. Your currently nameless owl hooted in excitement, and you said whispered an ‘yeah, I know’ in his direction.

“Hello (y/n)” said a voice behind you.

“Hey Severus!” you said, turning around. “Dad, this is Severus. Severus, this is my dad. He adopted me at the end of last year.”

“Yes, I’ve heard. Lily told me, she was quite excited about it. Nice to see you again, sir.”

Your father smiled. “Willow, unicorn hair, stiff, if I recall correctly?”

“Yes sir” Severus said with a small smile. “And these are my parents” he said, gesturing to two people who walked up to you. The five of you talked a bit, before you started to get your luggage into a cart. Not long after that, Lily joined you with her parents. After a proper greeting, she put her stuff in the carriage as well.

“I didn’t know you had an owl?” Lily suddenly remarked. “What’s his name?”

“Oh, he’s nameless. I don’t know what to call him.”

Hi nameless, I’m dad.

“I’ll help you come up with something” she offered.

“You’d better get in” said Lily’s mother, “before the train leaves without you.”

You all hugged your parents in goodbye, muttering that you’d write. Next, you hopped on, and not a moment too soon. The train started to move once you were all in and had closed the door. You and Lily squeezed yourselves through the window to wave your parents off, and they soon disappeared from sight.

After you and Lily had managed to get back in, you started to share stories of everything you had done this summer. Lily had gone to the beach, Severus had to go see a lot of family members because they were curious what he’d been up to all year - especially the muggle side of his family. It was only an hour later that you got up to look for the other marauders.

“See you in a bit!” you waved, and exited the compartment. Strolling through the hallway, you checked every window to see if you found a familiar face. You saw Frank, Alice and Mary once, waved at them, and carried on. It took you three more windows to find the others.

“Ah, there she is!” James said, and got up to hug you. Needless to say, you hugged him back. “Ye were wondering where you’ve been.”

“Let me guess; Lily, Mary and Snivellus?” Sirius asked and stood up to hug you as well.

You smacked his chest before returning the  friendly gesture, and said: “First of all; it’s Severus, and he’s a friend of mine. Second of all: Mary’s with Frank and Alice.”

Next, Remus and Peter hugged you. You all talked a bit about your summer, when suddenly James stood up to make sure the door was closed entirely.

“Guys, I’ve been having this idea…”

“Oh boy.”

“Shut it, Ollivander.”

“It’s still (l/n). We decided to keep it that way.”

“Okay then; shut it, (l/n). It’s a good idea.”

“That’s what you say every time.”

“Damnit Black, would you just let me speak?!”

“The stage is yours, mate.”

“Thank you. So, as I was saying; I’ve been having this idea. It’s to help Remus with his furry little problem.” This shut you all up. “We-“ he gestured to all of you- “are going-“ he made walking gestures with his fingers- “to turn-“ he turned around- “ourselves-“ another gesture to all of you- “into animagi!”

A small silence followed, before you broke it. “This is either brilliant or incredibly stupid.”

“Probably the latter” Remus said.

“Nu-uh, more like the first!” Sirius said. “Think of it, werewolves only attack humans!”

“And we could keep an eye on you when your monthly issue pops up” James added.

“You’re insane! Isn’t that a dangerous spell?!” Remus piped up.

“Shush!!” James whispered/yelled. “Or do  you want everyone to know what we’re up to?”

“We aren’t up to anything!” Remus whispered/yelled back. “This is stupid!”

“I kind of like the idea” Peter said.

“I kind of do too” you added. “Face it Remus, even if you’re not up for it, it’s our choice, not yours.”

“I’d like to see you argue with _that_ ” James said.

“You guys are going to be the death of me. And if not, at least of yourselves” Remus sighed.

“Nah” Peter said.

“Well, maybe” Sirius shrugged.

“Probably” you added.

“Undoubtedly” James grinned. “But we’re in this together, mate. And we’re doing this, whether you like it or not.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SOOOOOO SORRY FOR THE LATE UPDATE *again*
> 
> I don't own anything, and took some descriptions literally from either the books, pottermore or harry potter wikia.
> 
> I don't own you either, but I'd say that's kind of obvious.


	14. What's in a name

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> x Second Year x

“All right, to become an animagus, you have to go through a long and difficult process, but I think it can be done” James said. “I’ve done some research on it, and it seems all right. For example: you have to keep a leaf of Mandrake under your tongue for a month.”

You cringed at the thought. Mandrake smelled horrible, so the idea of putting one of its leaves under your tongue, for a whole month nonetheless, seemed disgusting.

“But before we start, I think we should all try to find out what animal we’ll be turning into” he continued.

“I didn’t know you could choose that?” Sirius said.

“You can’t, you turn into whatever animal your patronus is.”

“Joy” Sirius huffed. “Okay, sure, we’ll just learn that.”

“What’s a patronus?” you asked.

“It’s a kind of shield” Remus said. “It’s basically made of your own happiness, and protects you from some specific dark creatures.” He paused, before adding: “It’s one of the most complex spells out there.”

“Damn.”

“But what if we don’t get the hang of it?” Peter asked. “I mean, it could take forever before I master this one.”

“That’s what I thought” James said, “and I had the idea of making a deadline. If you don’t know what you’ll be turning into by Christmas, you can see if you want to take the risk. I mean, I understand you don’t want to go through such a dangerous spell if you’re just going to be turning into a fish.”

Sirius and you sniggered. “I  can already see it happening” he said. “Four of us sprinting to the lake to get you into the water.”

You all laughed, even Remus. You were going to make this work, you knew it.

~ *Dumbledore swooshing his hair* _Time skip, because you’re worth it._ ~

You were now in the great hall. Given that you were in your second year now, you moved from your regular seats at the table and made room for the new first years. You still kept your ‘natural order’ though, as James called it. It was as followed: Lily, you Remus and Peter on one side, and Mary, James and Sirius on the other.

When the first years walked in, you immediately looked for Regulus. You spotted him easily.

“That him?” James asked, motioning to him.

“Yup” Sirius sighed.

“Who’re you talking about?” Mary asked.

“That boy over there” you pointed him out. “That’s Regulus, Sirius’ brother.”

“How do you know him?” Peter asked.

“Met him this summer” you shrugged. “Seemed like a nice guy. Laughed at my joke. Well, he smiled, but that’s enough for me. Kid’s got a good sense of humour.”

“What joke?” Sirius frowned.

“Beware of the Mudbloods” you said smirking. Sirius chuckled again, remembering the moment.

You all watched on quietly, but you stopped paying attention after Regulus was sorted into Slytherin. You were focussing more on preventing your stomach form growling now. You did cheer along when someone was sorted into Gryffindor and welcomed them in the house, but you never remembered their names. After a while everyone was sorted and you could all begin to eat.

You introduced yourselves to the first years, and all began chatting about the regular stuff. Teachers, classes, slimy gits to avoid and Peeves the poltergeist.

“Oh, yeah guys, what I forgot to mention!” you suddenly shot up. “Dad gave me an owl!”

“Cool!” Peter said. “Boy or girl?”

“It’s a boy” you said, wiping away a fake tear. The boys laughed. “And he makes a hell of a lot of noise.”

“So, has he got a name yet?” Remus asked.

“Nope, he’s nameless. I’m seriously considering calling him that. Nameless.”

“Uh, let’s keep that as a plan B, okay?” he chuckled.

“Aww, c’mon Remus! That’d be so funny!” James sniggered.

“I kind of liked Smaug as well” you said. The others blinked. “Smaug? The dragon from The Hobbit? Never read that one?”

“Oh, yeah, I remember that book!” Remus said.

“Of course you would” Sirius said.

A sudden thought struck you. “I KNOW WHAT I’M GONNA CALL HIM- ah damn it, I can’t.”

“What? Why?” James said.

“It’s a boy. Otherwise I would’ve gone with Minerva McGonagowl.” The others surrounding you laughed, but you only pouted. “Stupid gender…”

“Napowleon?” Lily suggested.

“Nice, but no.”

“Brownie!” James said.

“Ugh, just makes me hungry.”

“Howler?” Sirius suggested.

“Good one” you smirked, “but not quite it.”

“Hang on, I’m gonna-“ Peter said, lifting his head and squinting his eyes. “HACHOO!”

“THAT’S IT!” you yelled, startling the others. “I’m going to call him Hachoo! It’ll remind me of last year.” You giggled, remembering Parkinson’s face. The marauders sniggered too.

“Perfect” James smirked.

“I know, I’m a genius” you smirked.

“Don’t push it” Lily said without looking up from her plate.

“C’mon Evans,” you grinned while slinging an arm over her shoulder, “you looooooove me~”

“Get off-“

“I do hate to disturb your lovely moment of affection, miss (l/n), but you’ll be needing these” McGonagall suddenly said, appearing next to you. All of you jumped slightly, and you dropped your arm. “I hope you all had a good summer?” she said while handing out your timetables.

“The best ever” you grinned while smiling up at her.

She mumbled something under her breath that sounded something like “I’ll bet” and headed further down the table.

“She scares me” a first year muttered quietly.

“Who, Minnie?” you asked baffled. “She’s awesome!”

“Correction: _you_ think she’s awesome” Sirius said.

“Of course you do,” James added, “given the fact that she loves you.”

“She doesn’t-“

“She does” everyone said simultaneously.

“Just because I got an O-“

“I’s exactly because you got an O. That proves it” James said. “She loves you.”

You grinned. “So, that’s what this is about. I got a better score at transfiguration and you can’t handle it.”

“What? That’s, no-“

“Admit it-“

“You’re mad, don’t even-“

“AdMiT iT-“

“WOMAN-“

“ADMIT ITTT”

“HOW DO YOU EVEN PRONOUNCE THREE T’S AFTER EACH OTHER THAT MAKES NO SENSE WHATSOEVER.”

“DON’T YOU CHANGE THE SUBJECT, POTTER.”

“Then how about I change the subject” Remus interrupted, “and we talk about our time tables?”

“Oh noooo” Peter moaned. “We’re starting with double potions on a Monday morning. With the Slytherins.”

“You have _got_ to be joking” Sirius said, looking at his own timetable. All heads turned simultaneously toward the Slytherin table on the other side of the Great Hall, and you found them staring/glaring back.

“Joy” you muttered, breaking the silence and the tension hanging in the room. “Okay, next up is Charms with the Ravenclaws – that’s okay. Then Tuesday we’ve got Transfiguration with the Huffle- oh COME ON.”

“What is it?” James asked.

“Since when do we have Defence Against the Darks Arts with the Slytherins?” you protested. The others immediately followed your displeasure, except, of course, Lily.

“Oh come _on_ , they’re not all that bad” she stated.

“Parkinson’s bad enough, thank you very much. I don’t want her and those _friends_ of her waving their wands when I’m around” you complained.

“Look at it from the bright side” Sirius said, “you’ll be waving your wand too.”

“Wise words, old friend” you replied, bowing slightly.

“I try” he said, looking smug and scratching a non-existent beard.

You went through the rest of the time table, and when you were all finished eating, Dumbledore spoke up once more. He gave a short speech talking about nonsense really, until he started talking about the same subject you and your father had spoken about that very morning.

“I want you to remember” he said slowly, “that every pupil in this school is equal, every teacher is equal and every _life_ is equal. Even in the darkest days, you can find solace in each other. And remember: it is _you_ who are the future, and it is now that you should know what future you are willing to work on.”

 _‘Well damn’_ you thought, _‘this is more serious than I thought.’_

_‘No pun intended.’_

~Time skip, because _holy cannoli those stairs_ ~

“Well, that was grim” James said. You sat on the floor in their room, given that that was a ‘safer’ place to talk. You all nodded in agreement with James’ statement, and you told them what had happened that morning.

“My dad talked about it too. Said he wanted me to write to him if anyone were to pick on me because of my heritage.”

“Don’t be surprised if they do, (y/n).”

“Sirius-“ Remus wanted to interrupt him, but he was already talking again.

“I’m just saying that they’ve been getting bolder. You haven’t heard my family lately. They were talking about Voldemort, sympathizing with his ideas, like they were discussing what they were having for dinner. It was disgusting.”

“Welllll, that sucks” you said. “Okay then, I guess we should expand our domain of expertise, should we not?”

“What are you talking about?” Peter asked.

“Given that there are now apparently gits running around the school who have it out for muggleborn blood, I say we should defend said muggleborns. Like hell I’m letting that Narcissa and her friends make anyone’s life a living hell. They’ll have to go through me.”

“You _do_ realise she’s a last-year and we’re only in our second year, right?” Remus deadpanned.

“That’s why I need help” you grinned. “We want to keep this school safe, do we not?”

“I like the way you’re thinking” Sirius grinned back.

“Why thank you” you said, flipping your hair. “Now, about this patronus thingy-“

“Ah, yes, _that_ ” Remus huffed.

“How do you do it? Anyone got a clue?” you asked.

“I’m not entirely sure, sorry” James said. “I just know it exists, that is has something to do with a happy memory, and that you have to say ‘expecto patronum’.”

“I’ll go check the library one of these days” you said yawning. “But for now, I’m going back to bed.”

They all said good night, and you turned to the door, but before leaving you said; “It’s nice being back. I really missed you guys. G’night.”

And you went straight to bed. When in your own dormitory you talked with Lily and Mary, talking about your holidays, families and other stuff, and once you finally laid down you immediately fell asleep.

(In case you’re wondering, you dreamt of a golden and red pie the size of Hagrid’s hut. You’re welcome.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it took me a long time again, but I've had my exams and stuff. Good news: I've got my diploma! University, here I come! *happy dance*  
> As for the disclaimers, as usual:
> 
> I don't own anything, and took some descriptions literally from either the books, pottermore or harry potter wikia.
> 
> I don't own you either, but I'd say that's kind of obvious.


	15. Eminent AF

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> x Second Year x

Merlin, you were happy when you woke up. Why, you ask? Well, dear reader, because the second of September 1972 was a Saturday. You didn’t stay in bed too long though, because you were too excited. You got up early, got dressed and when you were about to leave the room, Lily woke up.

“Are you up already?” she muttered, rubbing her eyes.

“Yeah, I couldn’t sleep anymore. It’s still early though, and Mary’s still asleep as well, so you can still sleep some more if you want to” you whispered back.

“M’kay” she yawned, and fell back down.

You grinned and walked down the stairs to the common room. Arriving there, you heard familiar voices coming down the stairs to the boys’ dormitories.

“Whose idea was it to get up this early again? It’s only seven thirty” James moaned.

“Mine” Sirius answered, “so stop whining.”

“I’m not whining” he whined whiningly, “I just need my beauty sleep. Besides, (y/n) won’t be up either.”

“Oh James, don’t worry” you called, “you’re always ugly, beauty sleep or not.” Your comment was followed by rushing down the stairs.

“(Y/n), you’re up!” Sirius said surprised when they came into view.

“What can I say?” you shrugged. “Great minds think alike.”

“Oh, get a roo- wait, did you just call me ugly?” James said.

“Sharp as ever, I see” you grinned

“Why you little-“ he took you in a head lock and ruffled your hair.

“GERROF ME” came your muffled shout. You hooked your leg behind his and pushed him over, making you both fall to the ground. You landed on top, shouting “VICTORY!”

“You both do realise there are people still sleeping, right?” Remus deadpanned.

“Not anymore there aren’t” Peter said, while Sirius tried to drag you off of James.

You got up and left the common room to go downstairs for breakfast. When you sat down in the Great Hall Remus asked “Why were you up so early?”

“I couldn’t sleep anymore” you shrugged. “Besides, I was thinking of going to the library. Maybe I can find something on how to cast a patronus. And if not, perhaps I can ask professor Merrythought to help out.”

“Professor Merrythought? Who’s that?” Peter asked.

“Our new professor for Defence Against the Dark Arts” Remus explained. “Honestly Peter, don’t you ever listen when professor Dumbledore gives a speech?”

His ears turned slightly red, and said: “Sorry, I was still thinking about how stupid that class would be with the Slytherins.”

“You’re right” you said, “it’ll be a disaster.”

“Well, either a disaster-“ James started-

“-Or _really_ fun” Sirius finished with a grin. “Let’s hope the latter.”

When you all stood up to leave, Hachoo flew in. He landed on your shoulder and hooted happily while you stroked his feathers. “Hey boy,” you said, “what are you doing here?” He nibbled your ear softly and you shrugged, slightly startling the owl. “Sorry” you muttered.

“You know,” you said, “Hachoo isn’t really doing in for me. You need a decent name, don’t you?” He responded with a hoot.

“Are you seriously talking to your owl?” James deadpanned.

“What can I say, he’s clever. I don’t even have to let him out of his cage or anything. He just escapes” you answered, deciding not to shrug this time. He gave another hoot, and by doing so, giving you the idea to his new name.

“Hoodini, how does that sound?” you asked, turning your head to the big eyed creature. He rubbed his head against yours affectionately. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

“Aww, but I liked Hachoo” James moaned as you all got up to leave.

“James, if you don’t stop whining I’ll make him take a dump on your head” you said. “Be warned.”

“Yeah, ‘kay, Hoodini’s fine.”

“Hey, James,” Sirius started to change the topic, “when are the quidditch try-outs?”

“Next week, Friday” he said, “I’m hoping to be seeker, but chaser is my second option.”

“A chaser’s the one who actually has to score, right?” you asked.

“Yeah” James said as you walked out on the fields. The air was crisp and the grass still wet, but it was a beautiful morning nonetheless. “I’m surprised you didn’t know that for sure (y/n), I thought I raised you better than that” he huffed.

“Sorry,” you muttered, “I’ve just never seen an actual game, all right?”

“WHAT?” they exclaimed- even Remus.

“What about last year?” Peter said as you all sat down on the grass.

“Dunno, I just never went to see one” you shrugged, given that Hoodini was now on your knee instead of your shoulder.

“All right,” James said, “you’re coming to the try-outs. And every training. And every match.”

“Wha- you’ve got to be joking! I haven’t got time for that!”

“Oh come on,” he huffed, “we’re in our second year, it’s not like we have a lot to do yet.”

“Speak for yourself” you huffed, “you don’t have to work twice as much for Potions. _And_ we have an extra hour this year.”

“Relax, fuzz ball” he said, slinging an arm around your shoulder, “I helped you out last year, I’m not going to leave you to your fate this year.”

“All right, how about we make a deal then: you do my Potions homework and I do your Transfiguration. Deal?”

“DEAL” he said with his typical Potter grin.

“Hey, I want in too!” Sirius said.

“Yeah, me too!” Peter whined. Remus (wisely) said nothing, and followed the situation with an amused grin.

“Oh boy” you muttered under your breath. Ignoring their protests, you got up and said: “I still have to go to the library, remember?”

“No, (y/n) you’re not leaving us-“ Sirius protested, until you bolted away. “(Y/N)!” He yelled, running after you. Peter looked conflicted for a second, until he decided it was too early – and he was too lazy – to run.

“(Y/N)! GET BACK HERE!” Sirius yelled chasing you up the stairs.

“NO” you shouted back. Noticing you weren’t losing him and you were already on the third floor where the library was, you got desperate. “HOODINI, DISTRACT HIM!” you shouted. Surprisingly, the owl spread out its wings, flew backwards and landed squarely in Sirius’ face.

“OW- (Y/N)! NOT FAIR!”

Looking behind you for a second, you saw him struggling with the owl as it continued to fly in his face. You laughed as you entered the library, and were greeted by a surprised face of the librarian, madam Pince.

“Miss (l/n),” she said, “though I am delighted with you enthusiasm for knowledge, I must insist you keep it down a little.”

“Of course madam Pince, my apologies” you replied with a grin. You walked further into the library and had to stifle a laugh when you heard the conversation coming from the front.

“Mister Black, it’s lovely to see you, though I must insist you get those scratches looked at by madam Pomfrey.”

“But-“

“No buts, young man, and keep it down. There is already a student here, very eminent, if you ask me.”

“Yeah, right, eminent” he replied muttering.

You walked into the reference section, given that you didn’t expect to find anything in the dragon or legal section, the restricted section was, well, restricted, and the invisibility section wouldn’t do you much good either, given that it was invisible. Because logic.

“All right,” you muttered, “Remus said it was a kind of shield against dark creatures.” Remembering the book you saw a year ago, but had found a bit too extreme, you went to look for that one. However, the library by day looked a lot different than by night, so you couldn’t find it.

After Merlin knows how long of searching and not finding any other decent books that held the information you needed, you went back to the desk of madam Pince.

“Madam Pince, could you help me please?” you asked quietly when you arrived.

She looked up and answered: “What’s the matter?”

“I’m looking for a book called The Essential Defence against the Dark Arts” you said digging into your memory.

Her eyebrows shot up. “The book by Arsenius Jigger, you mean?”

“Yes, that’s the one” you smiled.

“May I ask why you need such a book?” she said, frowning. She walked from behind her desk nonetheless, leading you further into the library.

“Well, this summer I read something about a spell called the Patronus Charm. It intrigued me, but I don’t really know exactly what it is or how it works. I thought I might find something about it in here and I recall seeing that book last year, but I don’t remember where it was.”

“It should be right… here” she said as she plucked the book off of a shelf. “Here you go. Normally, you should find what you seek under the title ‘Dementors’. If you don’t, I might have some other books relating to the topic.”

You thanked her as you took the book from her, and sat it down in order to start skimming the pages.

 _‘All right, Dementors…’_ you thought. _‘Red Caps, Kappas, Boggarts, Grindylows, … Ah, there it is, Dementors.’_

The title was indicated in black, seemingly spilled ink, and it had a figure of a hooded figure on the page next to it.

“History, appearance, nature and behaviour, no that’s not it…” you muttered to yourself skimming the subheadings. You shortly skimmed the part on their abilities, but quickly moved on. They seemed foul creatures, and you hoped you’d never see one for real. (Little did you know that you’d be seeing them from way too close, many years later. But that’s a story for another time.)

Next was the subheading ‘protection from Dementors’, with ‘Patronus Charm’ immediately underneath. You couldn’t help but feel a sense of victory as you read the text, but the feeling quickly subsided, for the spell was described as one of the hardest defensive spells. _‘So it’s a shield of happiness, made from a happy memory. Great, sounds fun’_ you thought. _‘A powerful, happy memory… Say Expecto Patronum… This doesn’t sound too hard…’_

Looking around you made sure no-one was there, and whipped out your wand. You closed your eyes, thought of the moment when you got adopted and muttered the incantation. Nothing happened.

Well damn.

This was going to be harder than you thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own anything, and took some descriptions literally from either the books, pottermore or harry potter wikia.
> 
> I don't own you either, but I'd say that's kind of obvious.


	16. Quidditch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> x Second Year x

You walked out of the library with the book stored under your robes. You had legally rented it of course, but you didn’t need anyone asking questions. Answers, on the other hand, would be welcome. You didn’t understand how that spell would be so difficult, why didn’t it work when you tried it, and damn it, how long had you spent in that library?! It appeared to be noon already, for when you went down to the Great Hall, a lot of people were already eating there, including the Marauders, Lily and Mary.

“Hey (y/n)!” the latter greeted you as you sat down, book stuffed away between you and Remus.

“Hey Mary” you greeted back. Seeing how she was about to ask where you had been, you quickly said: “Sleep well? I didn’t want to wake you this morning, so…”

“Oh yeah, pretty good actually. Though I did wake up from Hachoo getting out of his cage –“ Sirius grunted at hearing of the owl, much to your amusement, “I’m surprised he can do that, really – but I fell back asleep straight away.”

“Yeah, I figured I didn’t like his name, doesn’t really fit him. I renamed him Hoodini, with his consent this time. He likes it much better.” You pretended to only see Sirius’ face when you turned to get some food and pumpkin juice, and asked with a surprised tone: “Merlin’s beard, Sirius, what happened to you face?” He had a few small bandages covering his cheeks and forehead.

He fake-smiled at you. “Interesting story, really: some bat-shit crazy bird flew in my face today. But I’m okay, madam Pomfrey said I can take off the bandages after dinner, it’ll be all better.”

You couldn’t help but chuckle, and soon the conversation started to drift off to all different topics. You talked with Frank and Alice, talking about your summer and about the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher.

“Last year was a new teacher as well” Alice said, “And the years before as well, apparently. No-one’s been able to keep the job for longer than a year. I heard it’s been going on like that for about fifteen years or so. I hope this one’ll stay longer, I heard his grandmother taught Dumbledore himself!”

After a while, the tables started to clear out bit by bit, until not too many people were sitting around anymore. That’s when you decided to bring up the book.

“So, I’ve found this” you said as you slammed it on the table, startling Peter, Sirius and James.

“Blimey, Remus, you don’t scare of anything” Sirius huffed.

“The book was next to me; I knew it was there.”

“I’m surprised you whine about Remus, Black. Honestly, (l/n), did you _have_ to do that?” James huffed.

“Well, I had to get your attention off quidditch _somehow_ , didn’t I?” you grinned.

“Speaking of attention,” Peter said, “we might be getting some unwanted. Don’t you think it’s a good idea to continue this in the dormitories?”

“Fine by me” you shrugged. You five got up and headed upstairs. From the moment you left the Great Hall, Hoodini swooped in and landed on your shoulder again. You climbed the stairs to Gryffindor Tower in a comfortable silence, and it wasn’t until the door of their room closed behind you that anyone spoke of you again.

“For heaven’s sake, Sirius, Hoodini isn’t going to bite off your face” you said. You helped him sit down and get off his bandages.

“Still hurts, though” he muttered. The scratches had healed, but the skin was still a little red.

You rolled your eyes, kissed his cheek and said: “There, better?”

“M’yeah” he grinned.

“Oh, get a room” James huffed. An evil smirk spread over you face.

“Aww, is ickle Jamie baby jealous?”

“What? No!”

“You so are. Come here, let me give you a big smooch-“

“(Y/n), no-“

*cue you tackling him*

“Gerroff!! No! No kisses!!”

*cue Sirius joining*

“Black! GET OFF ME!”

“Nope!” Sirius laughed, putting him in a head lock, giving you the opportunity to smooch all over his face.

When he managed to break free, he was red in the face and he screamed: “YOU BOTH ARE MENTAL!”

You and Sirius laughed with tears in your eyes, and even Remus couldn’t help but grin.

“Absolutely mental…” he muttered, and picked up the book you had dropped on Sirius’ bed. “So, you said you had something?” he stated, desperately trying to change the subject.

When you calmed down, you told them about what you had found and tried earlier the day.

“That’s it?” James said. “A happy memory and some words? That’s all we’ve got to go on? Then how can this spell be so difficult?”

“Maybe you didn’t try a memory that was happy enough?” Peter said.

“I used the one where I found out dad adopted me” you explained. “It’s the happiest one I’ve got.”

“And you just have to think of it?” Remus asked.

You shrugged, petting Hoodini some more. “That’s what it says in the book.”

“Maybe it’s a different type op happy you need” he said. “Let me try.” He took out his wand, closed his eyes and said the spell just like you had done, but nothing happened.

“What do you mean with a different kind of happy?” Sirius asked.

“I took the memory of when (y/n) found out about my furry little problem” he said, and immediately you knew what he meant.

“What was so happy about it?” Peter asked with a curious tone.

“She held me the entire morning. She said it was okay. _Okay._ That’s the first time I ever heard anyone say that about me. Not even Professor Dumbledore, hell, not even my parents _ever_ told me it was _okay_. It just- meant a lot to me” he finished muttering. You nudged Hoodini, who flew over and nibbled his ear affectionately.

“Okay, there _is_ a different kind of happy” Sirius said, making you laugh and lightning the mood.

“Well, we’re doing _something_ wrong” you said. “I’ll just ask our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, but not just yet. I’ll maybe wait a week or two.”

“Why wait?” James asked.

“I want to get to know him a little before I ask- and him to get to know me. That way I’ll know how to ask, and if I should even ask at all.”

“Strategist, much?” Remus said, causing a grin to appear on your face.

“As long as you don’t ask next Friday though” James asked.

“Why’s that?”

“I wouldn’t want you to miss the Quidditch try-outs” he said with a wink.

“We are never going to hear the end of your Quidditch, are we?” you stated more than asked, and shook your head. This was going to be a long week.

It really was, given your new class mates for Defence Against the Dark Arts. Though the teacher was all right, it wasn’t fun at all so far. But you hadn’t started casting spells yet, all you casted now were dark looks across the classroom.

Joy.

~Time skip, brought to you by your mysterious father *wink* *wink*~

You sat in History of Magic, doodling away on your piece of parchment. You sat next to a Hufflepuff, MacMillan you thought her last name was, and at some point during class you had started doodling on each other’s parchments. She had drawn a bunny, you a butterfly, she a badger, you a lion, she a pigeon, you a ghost, etcetera. Class went in slowly, really, reeaaalllyyyy slooowwwlllyyy, and your parchment was almost completely covered with drawings when a note landed on your table and unfolded itself.

 _‘We’re going straight to the Quidditch field. Care to join?’_ it read in James’ slightly messy scrawl.

 _‘Sure, just have to drop my books in the common room. And no, I’m not going to take yours with me’_ you replied. The paper folded itself again and flew through the classroom, slightly startling the few students who were still awake. He read it, turned around, mouthed an ‘aww’ and grinned. You just rolled your eyes at him with a matching grin.

When the bell finally rang, the classroom had never cleared out so quickly. You hurried up the stairs and went to the common room, dropped your books and went to the fields with a hurried skip in your step. Arriving at the Quidditch stadium, you saw that James had already changed into the team’s robes.

“Excited, much?” you grinned  as you approached them.

“Very” he huffed with a nervous chuckle.

“You’ll do great, I’ve seen you on a broom.” You patted his back and added: “Go kick some butt.”

He gave you a nod and ran straight onto the field where the other students were standing. The four of you hurried up the stairs and into the tribune where you could see everything. Soon, the players rose on their brooms and the try-outs started.

“D’you reckon he becomes seeker?” Peter asked.

“I don’t know” Sirius shrugged. “I hope so, but Maxim McGonagall is after the position as well, and he got a trophy two years ago.”

“I thought he was a chaser?” Remus said.

“He is, and a great one, but he’s always wanted to become seeker. Now he’s got the chance. Good news though: if he becomes seeker, James could take his place as chaser” Sirius explained.

“Is he related to Minnie?”

“Don’t know, he could be her nephew or something. It would explain why he’s so good at the game.”

“Did professor McGonagall play Quidditch?” you asked flabbergasted.

“Come on, (y/n), even I know that” Peter said. “She was very talented, like her mother, but in her last year she got badly injured in the final against Slytherin. It’s why she wants them crushed so bad.”

You blushed slightly. “Wow, there are a _lot_ of things I don’t know about this game, aren’t there?”

“Yup” they answered synchronically.

Your attention now turned back to James, who was now trying out for the position of chaser. When the ball was thrown he caught it mid-air and swiftly flew away. He got through the defence fairly easily. At the last moment he was cut off, but managed to make a great pass to another chaser, so that they managed to score.

“Wait a second” you muttered, squinting your eyes. “Is that… Alice?”

“You’re right it is!” Sirius said. “I had no idea she wanted to be chaser as well!”

“How many places are available on the team?” you asked, turning to him.

“Two, either a chaser and a seeker, or two chasers. I depends on what Maxim does.”

“Well, I know who I’m rooting for” you chuckled.

The session went on like that for a while, until the head of the team called it quits.

Everyone flew down, and after sharing a meaningful glance, you descended the stairs as well. When you got on the fields, the team was already dispersing. James was running towards you with the greatest smile on his face.

“I’m a chaser!” he yelled. “Group hug!!”

You grinned and hugged him, as did Peter and Sirius, but Remus just stood there with an amused look on his face.

“Oh, get in here, you grumpy gills” you huffed as you dragged him into the hug.

And all the while with a giggling James in the middle.

Oh yes, he giggled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I would like to thank you guys for the comments and the kudos! All this love I'm recieving really keeps me going :3
> 
> I don't own anything, and took some descriptions literally from either the books, pottermore or harry potter wikia.
> 
> I don't own you either, but I'd say that's kind of obvious.


	17. A Happy Memory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> x Second Year x

The five of you celebrated James’ victory for the rest of the evening, congratulated Alice who had become the other chaser and were currently in the boys’ dormitories eating candy. Speaking of…

“Guys, where’d you get this candy?” you asked. It came out of James’ trunk, and had the label ‘Honeydukes’ on it. “I thought Honeydukes was in Hogsmeade?”

James and Sirius shared a grin. “Well, dear (y/n)” the latter started.

“We’re glad you noticed” James continued.

“For at the end of last year, mister Potter and I found a secret passageway”

“Behind a mirror on the fourth floor.”

“It leads to Hogsmeade.”

“But that is not the best of it. Dear mister Black, if you’d please inform our dear friends of what happened next.”

“Why, of course I will. Then we found a secret passageway in the cellar of Honeydukes-“

“What were you doing in the cellar of Honeydukes?” you interrupted them.

“Snooping, duh” James grinned.

“As I was saying” Sirius continued, “that secret passageway leads to the statue of the one-eyed witch, close to the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. You need a password to get through though. We tried to open it for sooo long” he sighed dramatically.

“We found it after five minutes” James shrugged.

“Do you mind sharing it?” Remus deadpanned.

“Dissendium” they replied.

A grin appeared on your face. “Nice.”

“We should make a map or something” James said. “Our very own, indicating the secret passageways.”

“One only we would be able to read” Sirius added.

“Lovely idea” you said, “but how about we do that when our current project is finished?”

“Probably clever” Sirius shrugged.

“Talking about projects” you said standing up, “I’m going to bed. I want to ask professor Merryhtought about the Patronus Charm tomorrow, and I want to do it as early as possible.”

You all said goodnight, and you went to bed. When in your room you talked with Lily and Mary, laughing and giggling all evening until you finally fell asleep.

~ Time skip brought by the mental issues of yours truly ~

It was the next morning, and you were in the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. “Professor Merrythought?” you asked, knocking on the door of his office.

“Come in” he answered. You opened the door and walked inside, closing it behind you. “Ah, miss (l/n), am I correct?”

“Yes, professor” you answered with a smile.

“Well, sit down, child. How can I help you?” he said, standing behind his desk and putting some books in their places.

You sat down and started to tell the same story you had told madam Pince of the library. “This summer I read something about a special kind of magic, the Patronus Charm. I went to look it up in the library and tried it, but nothing happened.”

“And you want to know what you’re doing wrong” he finished your sentence. It was more of a statement than a question.

“Yes sir.”

“May I ask: why the interest?”

You chewed on your lip. “I don’t know, really. I think because it’s a beautiful form of magic, and I’m curious.”

“Very well then, curiosity _is_ a virtue, I think. Tell me, did you say the words properly?”

“Expecto Patronum, yes” you nodded. He stood up and walked back to the classroom, motioning for you to follow him.

“What memory did you use?” he asked, descending the stairs.

“I thought of the moment when my dad adopted me” you said, “it’s the happiest one I have.”

“That one should surely be strong enough. Then I know what might be the problem, it’s a mistake many people make. You don’t have to _think_ of the memory, you have to _feel_ it. Let it flow through you, consume you. It’s your happiness you use as a shield, so you’d better be happy. Now, focus and try again.”

You closed your eyes and brought the memory back before your eyes.

_The train had arrived at the station in London, and you all got off feeling a bit sad. Sirius and you felt the worst, given that you didn’t exactly have a nice place to go home to. You had walked a bit further, leaving them all with their families/friends, when you saw a familiar face. Although, it wasn’t the familiar face you had been expecting._

_“Mister Ollivander!” you exclaimed, and hugged him._

_He laughed, and said: “It’s good to see you too (y/n).” When you asked him why he was here, he answered: “I’ve got a little something for you.” He reached into a pocked of his coat, and took out a piece of paper with a ribbon around it. You looked at it curiously when he handed it to you, and slid off the red piece of fabric. Unrolling it, you read only read the title before tears filled your eyes:_

_**Agreement of Adoption**_

_You wrapped your arms around him again, as you sobbed into his chest._

_“You- you’d do that for me?”_

_“Of course, you’re a wonderful girl, and you deserve a home. I’d be honoured if I could be the one to provide it to you.”_

A smile spread on your cheeks as you opened your eyes, and you said: “Expecto Patronum!”

A clear, white fog came out of the tip of your wand. Your eyes widened and shock was plastered on your face. The fog disappeared again, and the professor gave a slight applause.

“Not bad, miss (l/n), not bad at all. At such a young age, this is an achievement. If you practice some more, you’ll be able to get that full blown Patronus in no time.”

“Thank you professor” you smiled.

“No problem. You can come practice here during the breaks if you want, and let me know when you cast a patronus. I’m curious” he said with a grin.

“Of course professor, thank you” you said again as you left the classroom.

You went downstairs with a skip in your step, and went to the Great Hall. You thought your friends might still be at breakfast, given that they were still in bed when you were eating. Luck wasn’t on your side, for they weren’t there. You were wondering where to look next (the common room or the fields) as Hoodini flew into the Entrance Hall and nibbled your ear. Next, he flew back outside. The fields it were then. When you walked out, you spotted them easily. They were sitting close to the lake underneath a tree, throwing toast to the Giant Squid.

“Hey boys” you said as you reached them.

“Hey (y/n), how’d it go?” Sirius asked.

“Great!” you said with a grin as you sat down next to him. “I know what we’re doing wrong.”

“Mind to tell the class?” James smirked.

“You don’t have to think of the memory, you have to feel it. What good does a happy memory do if you don’t focus on being happy?”

After a moment of silence, Remus said: “Why didn’t we think of that?!”

You shrugged. “So, did it work?” Peter asked.

“Kind of; I got this white mist, but no real Patronus yet. The professor said I have to practice some more, but that I’ll be able to cast one soon.”

“I guess we should all try” Peter said, “just not here. Too many eyes.”

“You’re right” James said. “And I’ve been thinking-“

“Not again” you whined, making Sirius snigger.

“WOULD YOU STOP DOING THAT EVERY TIME I SAY I’VE BEEN THINKING!”

“Sheesh, don’t get your panties in a knot. Please, go on” you said with a smirk.

“Thank you” he huffed. “We should use codenames.”

After a short silence you said: “Are you going to continue or do you want a reaction right now?”

“Oh, yeah. Well, because we’re already a super duper awesome team right now, we should get codenames that match us. Maybe our animagi forms or something.”

“Soooo, should Remus be something like ‘Werewolf McWerewolf’ or something?”

“(Y/n)” Remus huffed.

“What? Don’t day it doesn’t suit you, mister McWerewolf.”

“It _does_ suit him” Peter said amused.

“Okay, well maybe something a tad less obvious. But I _do_ like the ‘mister’ part” James said.

“How about mister Snuffles then?” you grinned. Sirius and James burst out laughing, but Remus just growled.

“No. No Snuffles.”

“I don’t think mister Snuffles likes it” James said.

“Poor mister Snuffles” Sirius commented, shaking his head.

“Seriously though, a decent nickname-“

“CODENAME” James interrupted.

“- FINE, codename then, for Remus” you finished your sentence. “Misterrrrr… nope, I’ve got nothing.”

“Moony?” Peter suggested.

You all stared at him in surprise. “That’s absolutely brilliant!” James said. “Come here you-“ James jumped him and ruffled his hair under loud protest of his victim.

“Gerrofme!” Peter shouted.

Remus seemed to be contemplating the name, but didn’t look all that sure. “It’s better than mister Snuffles” you whispered at him, and that seemed to make up his mind.

“Mister Moony sounds good to me” he said.

“YAY” James cheered, releasing Peter, who then gasped for air.

“Honestly James, you’re like a big toddler” you grinned as he sat down next to you.

“Am not!” he pouted.

“Case and point” Sirius grinned beside you.

You all laughed, James included, and you laid down on the grass between two of your best friends, letting the sun caress your face.

~ Saving people, hunting things, y’know, the time skip business ~

It was _maddening_ I tell you.

Why, you ask?

Well, as the fall came, you still hadn’t mastered the Patronus! James had found out his was a stag, Sirius had a dog and Peter was getting there, but you were just stuck, and you had no idea why. You blamed it on the fact that couldn’t practice at night because of Mary and Lily, but you didn’t even believe yourself when you told that to the boys. Professor Merrythought couldn’t help you either, for ‘a Patronus is a very personal charm, and at some point you have to solve its mysteries yourself’.

Bullocks.

Halloween passed, it was now mid-November and guess what: you couldn’t sleep. It always happened when you were troubled. Giving up on sleep altogether, you snuck out of the room after grabbing your cloak and shoes. You descended the stairs and wanted to head out to get some fresh air, but halted when you stood in front of the exit.

‘Not like this, you don’t’ you thought.

You headed back upstairs, but went up the stairs to the boys’ dormitories. Opening the door quietly, you made sure everyone was asleep. They _seemed_ asleep, but little did you know that there was one pair of eyes watching you closely through the dark.

You crept through the room, cursed the four of them in your head for leaving their mess everywhere and almost making you fall several times, and halted next to where James laid. You slid his trunk from under his bed and searched for his invisibility cloak, cheering mentally when you found it. You slid his trunk back in place and left as quietly as you had come. You didn’t notice somebody following you down the stairs and into the common room until he spoke up behind you.

“Stealing now, are we?” his amused voice rang out.

“HOLY-“ the rest of your shouts were muffled as he clamped his hand over your mouth.

“Shush, it’s just me” he assured you.

“Merlin, Sirius, don’t ever do that again” you said when he released you, trying to get your heart to beat normally again. He looked at you with expecting eyes, and you realised you hadn’t answered his question. “I just wanted to get some air, I couldn’t sleep” you explained.

“Mind if I come with?” he asked. The request startled you a little.

“No, of course not” you said. You got out of the common room, pulled the cloak over the both of you, and headed out to the fields. You didn’t speak while on your way out in order to prevent getting caught.

As soon as you were outside, you asked: “Did I wake you?”

“No, I couldn’t sleep either. ‘s Not the first time Peter’s snoring has kept me up all night.”

You giggled as you sat down by the lake, making sure to be just out of sight from the castle.

“What’s your excuse?” he asked.

You shrugged. “Dunno, my Patronus, I guess.”

“Still struggling, huh?”

“Mhmm” you nodded, shivering a little. “I should’ve brought an extra coat” you chuckled.

His lips twitched sideways, and he scooted closer. He slung his arm over your shoulder pressing you into him, and pulled his cloak over you a little. The warmth was very welcome as you snuggled into him.

“Thanks” you muttered. It was strange, you saw Sirius just as a friend, yet this kind of moments were ones you shared only with him. You wouldn’t dream of cuddling with James when you were cold.

“No problem” he smiled. “So, let’s try to solve this Patronus problem, shall we?”

“Do we have to?” you groaned.

“Absolutely” he grinned, “otherwise you won’t be able to sleep. So, you’re using the memory of when you got adopted, right?”

“Yup.”

“And you get a 100% happy feeling from that?”

You looked at him, startled. “Why do you ask that?”

“Well, because it could remind you of the fact that you’ve been alone for eleven years. I had that problem too with my memory.”

“What’s yours?”

He was silent, not knowing whether to answer that or not. After a short moment, he said something you’d never expect to hear.

“You.”

…

…

“What?” A heavy blush spread on your cheeks, and a strange form of happiness set in your stomach.

“You’re my happy memory. At first it reminded me of the crappy life I’ve had before Hogwarts, but then I focused completely on you, joking around, flying lessons, and not to forget your stubborn view on the houses during our sorting ceremony.” Now he looked directly at you. “You told me a person isn’t defined by their house. It was something so new to me, it startled me so much.” he looked at the lake again.

“It sounds sappy, I know, but you’re my happy memory. You’ve made me happy from the moment we met, and even if you don’t realise it, you’re doing it right now. So I think of that.”

A smile set on your face, and you got what he meant; he made you happy too. Before you registered it, you said: “show me.”

He didn’t even hesitate; he got out his wand, muttered the spell, and a beautiful shining dog appeared in front of you.

‘I do that’ you thought with a smile. ‘I make him happy.’

You got your wand too and muttered the spell, only this time you didn’t focus on your adoption, but on the right there, right then. To your surprise, your Patronus materialised too, and sat down in front of you.

Sirius smiled, and whispered: “Brilliant.”

“Thank you, Sirius” you said.

“No problem” he answered, resting his head on top of yours.

The two dogs in front of you mimicked your pose, staring at you as you stared back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Awwww, isn't that sweet? Look at you two, all fluffy and cuddly <3
> 
>  
> 
> I don't own anything, and took some descriptions literally from either the books, pottermore or harry potter wikia.
> 
> I don't own you either, but I'd say that's kind of obvious.


	18. A more profound Bond

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> x Second Year x

When you told the other three Marauders of your Patronus, none of them made a comment on the fact that yours was exactly the same as Sirius’. Well, not verbally at least. Remus and James shared a glance, but no-one spoke about it. That was undoubtedly thanks to the simple fact that they didn’t know what it meant, they just found it remarkable.

Not long after sharing the news with them – and them starting to look for a nickname for you – you went to see professor Merrythought. After all, he _had_ been the reason any of you had managed to cast one in the first place. It was a Tuesday when you decided to talk to him. You had him the second period, right before noon. When everyone went down to the Great Hall to eat, you stayed behind to talk to him.

“Professor?” you started, approaching his desk.

“Ah, miss (l/n), I was wondering when I was going to hear from you. I take it this is about your Patronus?” he said, looking up from the stack of essays on his desk.

“Yes professor, I finally managed” you stated proudly.

“Congratulations!” he said with a big smile. “Mind showing me?”

“No, not at all” you said, whipping out your wand. You turned to face the classroom and focussed on that evening at the lake, and spoke the incantation. The big beautiful dog appeared out the tip of your wand and landed in front of you, tail waggling happily.

“What a beautiful Patronus!” professor Merrythought said, and you couldn’t help but notice the resemblance between his expression and that of the dog.

“Thank you” you said with a grin. “A friend of mine helped me out, I couldn’t have done it without him.”

He nodded in approval. Before you even registered it, you heard yourself ask: “Professor, what does it mean when two people have the same Patronus?”

Seeing his look of surprise, you added: “I mean, does it even mean _anything_? Just, y’know, out of interest.”

With a knowing smile (that slightly creeped you out, might I add,) he said: “People who share a more profound bond* often have the same Patronus, or at least a resembling one. Do understand, this is not just a bond between best friends. We’re speaking of a deep, true love here.”

(* **AN: yeah that’s a Supernatural reference deal with it)**

“W-wait, true love?” you said with a frown, making him chuckle. Your Patronus disappeared as well.

“Yes, true love. It sounds cliché, but love is strong. In some cases, it is so strong that it connects the joy of life of two people. It then only makes sense that people with such a bond share a Patronus. This can vary from a parent and a child to lovers, or perhaps a _very_ strong friendship. Of course, there is a chance that coincidence is at hand, but that is not a very likely option.”

“Huh” came your intelligent reply. Sure, you considered Sirius to be a close friend, but you didn’t love him. At least not like _that_. “Thank you professor. I’m going to the Great Hall now, y’know, to eat.”

“Mind if I walk with you?” he asked.

“No, not a problem” you said, and walked out of the classroom.

“Who is this friend who helped you, if I may know?” he asked once you were walking through the deserted corridor.

“Sirius Black” you replied, not seeing a problem telling him.

“He seems a nice boy, and a good friend too” he commented with a small smirk.

You shrugged. “He really is. Why do you ask?”

“It seems highly unlikely that _a friend_ helped you with your Patronus, and only a minute later you ask what it means when people have the same-“

“Whoa, whoa, what are you implying here?” you interrupted him.

“Nothing you didn’t just confirm with your reaction.” The grin on his face became even bigger. “You share your Patronus with mister Black, it’s nothing to be ashamed about.”

“I- wha- I didn’t- I never said that!”

“But it _is_ the truth. So tell me; now that you know the truth about what that simple fact means, will you tell him?”

“No, of course not” you frowned. “He told me I was his happy memory, that I was a good friend to him, one of the first he’s ever had. Him saying that made me happy in turn, and he became my happy memory too. That’s a strong friendship, nothing more. And he knows that already.”

“Well then, I guess I can only tell you this: hold on to that friendship. Dark days are coming, miss (l/n), and you’ll need friends to keep the light on.”

“Thanks, I guess” you said as you arrived in the Great Hall.

“It was my pleasure” he replied, “and thank you for showing me your Patronus. It was a privilege to watch.” With that, he left to the teachers’ table, leaving you in the doorway.

You made your way to your table, not paying attention to your surroundings, while thinking _‘What the Hell just happened?’_

~ Time skip, presented by the Red Wedding. THE NORTH REMEMBERS ~

The Christmas holidays couldn’t come soon enough after that. With longing you looked forward to seeing your father again, and when the time finally came, you wasted no time in sprinting off the train and into his arms. The other ones followed quickly behind, for their parents were all standing in the same group. Except for Sirius’ of course, they were nowhere to be seen- oh wait, there they were: far away in the distance stood Sirius’ mother to pick up Regulus. Sirius himself was nowhere to be seen either, but then in the literal way. He was hiding beneath James’ cloak.

Why, do you ask?

It was for one simple reason: Sirius’ parents thought he would be spending his holidays at Hogwarts. Therefore, he could not let them (or Regulus) see him. Because in reality, he would be spending his time at the Potters’. Brilliant.

Speaking of Potter…

“Mister Ollivander?” James spoke up, “I was wondering if (y/n) could spend a couple of days at my place this holiday. Peter and Remus are coming over too, and it wouldn’t be the same without her. Sirius might be coming over too, but we still have to arrange that” he quickly lied at the end.

“Seems all right” your father smiled. “We’ll arrange the details later. Until then, (y/n), say bye to your friends, I have a delivery this evening I wouldn’t want to miss.”

“Thanks dad” you smiled, hugged your friends, and left them behind as you left the platform. Making your way home, you spoke to your father about the things you had learned already. It wasn’t long until you had made your way into the Leaky Cauldron and into Diagon Alley. It was already dark when you reached the shop, and Hoodini was sitting impatiently in his cage.

“All right, come out then” you sighed, and the words hadn’t even left your mouth when he opened his cage, flew out, and landed on your shoulder. “You’re brilliant” you praised him as you walked inside, and he nibbled your ear affectionately.

You went upstairs to drop your stuff, and when you looked out of the window, you saw someone approaching the shop. Only a second later you heard the bell downstairs, signalling that there was a customer, followed by voices.

“(Y/n), can you come down please?” your dad’s voice called out.

“Coming!”

Arriving downstairs, you came face to face with a sight you’d never expected to see. A man, about twenty five years old, standing next to your father with a big smile and a bow on his head (the kind you get on a present).

“SURPRISE!!” he yelled, ran forward and gave you a big hug.

“Dad” you replied out of breath, “what’s going on?”

“Yeah _dad_ , what’s going on?” he said, casually leaning against you.

Wait.

What?

“Gallagher, stop teasing her” your father sighed with a smile. Next, he turned to you. “(Y/n), meet Gallagher, my son.”

…

…

…

…

“I HAVE A BROTHER??” you exclaimed.

“Of course you do” Gallagher said, “Whose room do you think you’re sleeping in? Well, former room, since I moved out.”

It was only then that you remembered Ollivander saying something about the room belonging to his son when you had met him. “Oh yeah, right, forgot about that” you muttered looking up at him. It was so strange, suddenly having a brother. “Sooo, nice to meet you?” you grinned sheepishly.

“Nice to meet you too” he grinned back. He looked ridiculous with that bow on his head, but you still noticed the features he shared with your dad. His eyes were exactly the same, as were their lips, though you had never seen those of your father making the smirk you were watching now. “So, my name is Gallagher, I’m twenty seven, I was a Ravenclaw – though not nearly as clever as you’d expect – and I’m an Auror. Oh, and my favourite colour is blue.”

“Noted” you grinned back. “My name’s (y/n), I’m a Gryffindor – though not as stupid as you’d expect, except when it comes to potions – and my favourite colour is (f/c).”

“Noted” he smirked, still leaning on your shoulder.

“What have I done…” your father muttered, making you both laugh.

“So, how come we meet only just now?” you asked.

“I’ve been gone for about four months this summer, for work. Dad and I figured it would be better for us to meet in person, not in a letter. So here I am! Merry Christmas! A bit soon, I know, but…”

“It’s perfect” you grinned and gave him a hug he happily returned.

You two spent the entire evening in your room, talking about your lives. You found out a lot about him and your father, for example that Mrs Ollivander had died twelve years ago. Not lingering too long on the subject, he said: “I love what you did to my room.”

You laughed, seeing that you had done absolutely _nothing_ with it, save the few books you had put on the shelves. “Yeah, well, I like it this way. And the view is great.”

“It is, isn’t it” he sighed, memories clear in his eyes.

“Where do you live now?” you asked.

“I have a small apartment In London, I could take you there some time if you’d like.”

“I’d love that.”

“Gallagher, (y/n)” sounded from downstairs, “dinner’s ready!”

“FOOD” you both exclaimed, and bolted downstairs.

Ah yes, your brother was _fun_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the update, I just forgot... *and yes, in my bat shit crazy head, stuff like that actually happens* *sorry*
> 
> I don't own anything, and took some descriptions literally from either the books, pottermore or harry potter wikia.
> 
> I don't own you either, but I'd say that's kind of obvious.


	19. Christmas presents and Mandrake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> x Second Year x

Three days later, a Patronus appeared in your room.

“Oi, (y/n)!” the stag exclaimed, startling you, “Get your lazy bum over here, I already gave you my address, how about you put it to good use, hmm? We’re waiting!”

You laughed at James’ antics, and went downstairs. The place was filled with Christmas decorations, for Christmas had been the day before. “Dad?” you called out, walking into the shop. There were no customers at the moment, so you just continued: “James just sent me a message, he wants me to come over.”

“Do you have the address?” Gallagher asked, “I have some time, I could take you.”

You handed over the note, and he grinned. “I know this place, I could just Apparate us there.”

“Be careful Gallagher” your dad said, “as far as I know she hasn’t Apparated yet.”

A sly smirk creeped on his face. “Ooh, this’ll be _fun_.”

“Great, I’ll go pack my bags!” you said as you darted upstairs, not waiting to hear your dad scold Gallagher on how ‘it isn’t _fun_ , if she arrives even slightly nauseous, you can sleep in the attic’.

When in your room, you took your wand, a bag in which you threw some clothes and the Christmas presents you had bought for your friends. Next, you told Hoodini that if he missed you, he should come to the Potters’ house. Not five minutes had passed when you arrived back in the shop with your bag slung over your shoulder.

“Let’s go, coolio!” you exclaimed, and walked over to your brother.

“How long will you be staying?” your dad asked.

“I don’t know, but I’ll be back home for New Year’s Eve” you promised with a hug goodbye.

Next, you felt Gallagher’s hand enclose your own, and the most nauseating feeling washed over you. You twirled and twirled and kept on twirling as your feet left the ground

_Fun. Your. Ass._

“GODDAMNIT GALLAGHER” you shouted the moment your feet hit solid ground once more. Your words were mixed with the sound of his laughter as he clasped your back, making you topple over. “Urgh, I think I’m going to be sick…”

“Easy there, Gryffindor” he teased, but was cut off by another voice.

“(L/n), I swear, if you puke on my front lawn I’ll hex your ass into next week.”

“I’d love to see you try, crusty legs” came your groggy reply.

“Who’s this?” Peter’s voice sounded. Looking up, you saw the four other Marauders standing in the doorway, all of them eyeing Gallagher.

“Brother, boys, boys, brother” you introduced them curtly.

“You-“ “Wha-“ “A brother?” “Since when?!” came their shouted replies.

“Nice to meet you” Gallagher replied before turning to you with a slight frown. “(Y/n), when you told me about your friends, you didn’t tell me they were _boys_.”

“Wha- uh, yeah they are.” Seeing his scowl, you narrowed your eyes. “Is there a problem here?”

He suddenly pulled you close and smothered you in his chest. “Nope, not my little sister you pervs!” He said. “Of _course_ there is a problem, they’re _boys_ , do you know what boys their age think like? About girls? With girls? Nu-uh, no you don’t!”

“G- can’t breathe!” you squeaked. “Guys, save me!” A choir of ‘hell no’s’ and ‘nu-uh’ reached your ears, and you groaned. “So much for the courage of Gryffindors. G, seriously, I’ve known them longer than I’ve known you.”

“Doesn’t mean they won’t hurt you.”

“Believe me, if we’d hurt her, _she_ ’d be our biggest worry” James said.

“Yeah,” Sirius continued, “because unlike Potter here, she _can_ hex us into next week.”

“Seriously guys” you interrupted, “can’t breathe!” When Gallagher released you, you took in a big gulp of air.

“If any of you hurt my (y/n)-boo, her hexes won’t be your biggest worry. Trust me, I’m an Auror, I can easily send you to Azkaban.”

“Noted” three of them replied, while James was still sniggering about (y/n)-boo.

“Good.” His scowl turned into the great big grin you were used to, and he ruffled your hair. “Now you play with your boyfriends.”

“Shut up, or I’ll tell dad you made me nauseous” you hissed, punching his shoulder. He cackled and Disapparated, leaving you a muttering mess about ‘stupid siblings’ and ‘Sirius can suck it, mine’s the worst’.

“Well, that was awkward” Remus said.

“You tell me” you huffed, “can you believe that idjit was my Christmas present? And that’s supposed to be a Ravenclaw!”

They laughed, and hugged you in a proper greeting.

“C’mon, (y/n)-boo, let’s go inside” James taunted. You pushed his sideways, making him face-plant into the snow.

“You were saying?” you grinned. However, you didn’t see the snowball he had scooped up until it hit your face, and thereby unleashing a war. “AW HELL NO!” sounded your glorious battle cry as you jumped him, shoving snow in his face and into the back of his shirt. He quickly rolled you over, turning the tables and covering your face in snow.

“REVENGE IS SWEET” he bellowed, but his maniacal laughter was interrupted by a stern voice.

“JAMES POTTER!”

He froze, and a small ‘uh-oh’ his lips.

“DAMN RIGHT UH-OH, WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, SHOWING INNOCENT GIRLS INTO THE SNOW?”

“Hi Mrs Potter” you greeted from beneath her son. “Always nice to see you.”

“You too dear” she smiled kindly as her face came into view. James scrambled off you and helped you up, muttering a small apology. “How about you go make the poor lady something to warm up?” she hissed.

“Yes mum” he said and scampered off.

The other Marauders were all red-faced as they tried to contain their laughter, and followed Mrs Potter inside. She lead you to the kitchen where James was already busy making hot chocolate. You walked up to him, slung your arms around his shoulders from behind and planted a kiss on his cheek.

“Sorry for teasing” you grinned.

He grinned too, but whined “Ewww, cooties!”, making you laugh.

“Need some help with that?” you offered.

“Yeah, if you could take the chocolate and the sugar” he said, pointing to a cabinet. You did as he asked, and the five of you were soon sat around the table, happily sipping hot chocolate and munching cookies.

“So, Peter, did you cast you Patronus yet?” Sirius asked after you had been chatting for a while.

“Only once, briefly” he said shamefully. “I think it was a rat, but I’m not sure. It didn’t really work that well.”

“Hey, that’s okay” you said, laying your hand on his shoulder. “Nothing to be ashamed of.”

“She’s right” Remus chimed in, “I wouldn’t be able to cast one at all if I tried. Besides, I was there, it was definitely a rat.”

“They all cast one” he muttered.

“Yeah, well, James and Sirius are basically geniuses, they’re no reference points. As for me, I got some help” you ended, sharing a small glance with Sirius.

“Sooo, are you in?” James said.

“Of course” Peter replied without hesitation.

“That’s my boy” you grinned as you slung your arm over his shoulder, ruffling his hair a little.

“C’mon, let’s go upstairs” James said.

You followed him through the house, and you couldn’t help but comment: “Bloody Hell, James, your house is huge…”

“Thanks” he grinned. You arrived in his room, where you found four sleeping bags laid out on the floor. “My mum offered the guest room, if you want to, but we thought you’d like sleeping here.”

“Yeah, thanks” you breathed as you took in the room. You saw stuff sprawled around everywhere; his broom, books, sweets from Honeyduke’s, a wand-polishing set, figurines you recognised to be the Montrose Magpies, a remembrall, a fake snitch on a socket and many other things you didn’t recognise.

“Merlin, how is it even possible to have this much stuff?” you breathed.

“My parents spoil me” he shrugged.

“And you better know it” his mother suddenly said from the doorway. She held a tray of sweets and drinks balancing on her one hand and five Santa hats in the other.

“Yay! Thanks mum” James said as he took the tray and hats from her.

“You guys have fun” she winked and closed the door behind her.

You sat down in a circle on the floor in the middle of the sleeping bags, the tray with food in the middle of the circle, and James started to hand out the Santa hats putting one on himself. You followed his lead as he got a bag from under his bed. He got out four presents and held them in his lap as he sat down, so you got out your presents as well.

“Merry Christmas, guys” you said as you all started to hand them out. You had gotten Peter a special wand bag, because he kept losing his. He blushed a little at the gift, but was very pleased.

You got Remus a wolf plushie with a collar saying ‘Moony’, to which he replied with a ‘Oh, you’re just terrible, you, you- c’mere’ and a hug.

James received a mini broom that flew around his head while cheering ‘the best chaser in the world’, to which he tackled you to the ground in a hug.

Sirius’ gift was a little round black box with _‘Canis Major’_ engraved in silver on top. “What’s that?” James asked. Sirius opened it, but it was empty. “You got him an empty box?” James grinned.

“Not just a box” you huffed. “Canis Major is a constellation, and its brightest star is-“

“The Sirius” Sirius finished for you, starting to understand what it meant.

You nodded. “See those rings?” On the inner edge of the box were two metal rings, one inside the other, with engravings. “You have to turn them so the engravings match” you said. He did as you told, and once the inner ring clicked into place, a shimmering light came out. In the air above the box appeared the constellation Canis Major. “I thought you might like it” you muttered as you saw his awed expression.

“This is brilliant” he grinned, giving you a hug. “Thanks, (y/n)”

“No problem” you said, hugging back. “I saw it in Diagon Alley and I just had to buy it for you.”

When you parted, Peter started to hand out his gifts, then James, then Sirius and finally Remus. You ended up with a poster set and book from the Montrose Magpies given to you by James, the book ‘The Hobbit’ by Remus (he had remembered you saying you liked it when naming Hoodini, but not actually _having_ the book), a mouth telling jokes by Peter and a polaroid camera by Sirius.

“But this is so expensive!” you protested when you had unwrapped it.

He merely shrugged. “I don’t mind spending my parents’ money.”

“Okay, picture time it is then” you smiled. The five of you huddled close, mashing your faces together, while you held the camera high. “Smile!” you cheered, while making a funny face yourself. There was a brief flash, and not long after a small picture came out. You gently took it, fanned it around a little, and when you looked at it you saw, much to your amusement, that all of you had ‘secretly’ made a funny face. The five of you laughed at the moving picture, seeing you all smile and pulling a face at the exact same moment.

“Brilliant” you said. “I’m keeping this one forever. Thanks, Sirius.” You carefully put it between the book you were given, and put them all in your bag.

After an hour of talking, joking and eating (especially eating), James had dimmed the lights, taken a small box and put a lit candle in the middle of the circle.

“Okay, I call this special Marauders’ meeting officially opened” he started. “First of all, codenames. Sirius and I’ve been thinking about them, and we’ve come up with some good ones. I’m Prongs, because of the antlers-“

“-James, you don’t need to explain them, they understand” Sirius interrupted.

“Nu-uh, during a special Marauders’ meeting we _must_ use the codenames. So from now on, I’m Prongs, Sirius is Padfoot and (y/n) is Paws. Everybody good with the current codenames?”

You nodded, Paws was better than Snuffles.

“Good, then we just have to find a name for Peter” James continued. “Anyone got any ideas?”

“You were a rat, right?” you said.

“Yeah” Peter said.

“Then maybe something with the tail?”

He shuddered. “But their tails are so weird.”

“Like a worm” Sirius laughed.

“How about Wormtail then?” you suggested.

“Do I have to?” he groaned.

“Would you prefer Shoveltooth?” you deadpanned.

“Wormtail’s fine!” he quickly replied.

“It has been decided then” James continues in his serious voice. “Moony, Paws, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs shall now and forevermore be known as the Marauders, Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief Makers. Let the Animagus ceremony begin.”

He opened the box, and took out four leaves.

“Merlin, Prongs, that smells horrible” Sirius protested.

“Stop whining Padfoot, the leaf of the mandrake is the first step in our transformation.” He handed each of you one, except for Remus. “We have to keep them under our tongue for a month-“ you scowled at the thought “- and it would be better if we’d already start now, so that we’re used to the feeling when we’re back at school. Y’know, so nobody knows what we’re up to.”

“All right, let’s do this” you said.

“But you all have to promise not to take it out at all costs” James quickly added.

You rolled your eyes, but held your hand out over the candle nonetheless. “I, miss Paws, solemnly swear that, no matter what it takes, I won’t take the leaf of mandrake out of my mouth for one month.”

“I, mister Padfoot, solemnly swear that, no matter what it takes, I won’t take the leaf of mandrake out of my mouth for one month” Sirius repeated, laying his hand on top of yours. Peter and James did the same as well, and when your four hand were on top of one another, you looked at Remus.

“Moony, you need to seal the oath” you said turning to your friend.

He huffed, but laid his hand atop yours anyway. “I, mister Moony, confirm these words, and bind miss Paws, mister Padfoot, mister Prongs and mister Wormtail to their words.”

“Nice one mate” James commented.

With your five hands still over the candle, the four of you took the leaf of mandrake in your other hand and stared at it in disgust.

“Geronimo” you gave the unofficial start sign, and you stuffed it under your tongues.

The four of you gagged in disgust, but no-one took it out.

Remus chuckled and huffed. “This. Is going to be a disaster.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eeeeeeep, thank you all for the kudos and the comments, they all mean sooooo much to me!! *huggles to all* <3
> 
> I don't own anything, and took some descriptions literally from either the books, pottermore or harry potter wikia.
> 
> I don't own you either, but I'd say that's kind of obvious.


	20. This means war

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> x Second Year X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone!!  
> Short note before the chapter: if there are any requests/imagines of something you'd like me to integrate in this story, feel free to let me know and I'll see what I can do! :D
> 
> Enjoy the new chapter! ;)

You spent the rest of your time at the Potters’ mostly playing quidditch. You figured James wanted to practice, dreading to mess up his first year as chaser. James and his father played as chasers on one team, with yourself as beater, whereas Sirius and Remus played as the other chasers with Peter as beater. Mrs Potter played as a general keeper. You were excited because this was the first time you’d ever played quidditch yourself.

It turned out that you weren’t such a bad beater, managing to keep the bludger away from your teammates most of the time, and almost knocking Remus and Sirius off their brooms a couple of times ( _‘Sorry guys!’ ‘(y/n) don’t apologise, we’re winning!’)_.

And eventually you _did_ win, not that it surprised anyone. James was a very good player, and he obviously got his talent from his father. The two of them together appeared to be unbeatable, as they won with 110 against 30.

“Am I really supposed to believe,” mister Potter said to you afterwards, as you were having a cup of hot chocolate in the kitchen, “that you’ve never played before?”

“I’m surprised too” James said, “you growing up the muggle way and stuff. I expected to be rubbish. No offense.”

“None taken, but it’s not like I’ve never picked up a bat before. We’ve played plenty of baseball at the orphanage” you shrugged. A silence followed your statement, making you look up from your mug to see them blinking at you with raised eyebrows. Not only James and his father, but also his mother, Peter and Sirius.

“What?” you frowned.

“They don’t know what baseball is, (y/n). The wizarding world doesn’t have sports like that” Remus said.

“You’re joking” you deadpanned.

“Nope” Sirius said, “never heard of it.”

“Do you… Want me to explain the game?” you asked slowly.

“Sure!” James grinned.

As you started to explain the game, the rules and the players, concentration etched on their faces as they tried to follow and memorize everything you said, whereas Remus watched on amusedly.

At the end of your explanation, James frowned. “Are you telling me you have to… run?”

You laughed. “Yeah, that’s the general idea.”

“Sounds awful” he said scrunching his nose, making you laugh even more.

“Of course you’d immediately dislike a sport because you have to run” Remus deadpanned, making the others laugh as well.

“Oh, (y/n), I almost forgot!” Mrs. Potter suddenly sat up, taking something out of her pocket. You recognised immediately what it was: a polaroid. “I took it while we were playing” she said as she handed it to you.

You took it from her, seeing yourself on a broom, hitting the bludger as hard as you could. “Thanks” you grinned. “It looks great. I’ll just go put it upstairs.”

You bolted up the stairs. When you arrived in James’ bedroom you put it with the other picture you’d taken. You had the feeling that you were going to have a brilliant photobook one day.

~ This is a time skip sponsored by *pulls down trousers* PUDIIINGGG!!!!! ~

Back at school, everything went swell. No-one noticed the mandrake; you four made sure to stay away far enough from other people and have mints on you all the time. You successfully pulled some pranks and got into some ‘healthy’ fights with some Slytherins, nothing too big.

You did have problems with potions though, so James tried to help you out. However, with his quidditch practices he didn’t have that much time anymore. That’s why you went to Severus for help.

“I can’t believe you replaced me by Snivellus” James muttered. He sat on the floor next to the fireplace in the common room, while Remus sat on an armchair and you, Sirius and Peter sat on the couch.

“Jamie dear, you’re always busy and I need to work on my grades. In other words: suck it” you said with a voice as sweet as you could muster. “Besides - and I don’t know how many times I’m going to have to repeat it - _Severus_ is my _friend_ ” you continued in a normal tone.

“He’s a git” Peter deadpanned.

“How would you know?” you hissed. “You’ve never given him any chance.”

“Sure we have-“

“No you haven’t” you interrupted him. “You hate him because James hates him, and James hates him because he likes Lily and he can’t stand the fact that Sev’ is closer to her than he is.”

James’ face started to swell like a pufferfish. “That’s not true!” he said incredulously.

“It is, and you know it” you hissed. “Now I understand that you don’t have to like everyone, but he. Is. My. Friend. And I would appreciate it if you’d just let him be, or at _least_ stop judging my friendship with him.”

A silence followed your statement, and you turned back to your potions book. It was a sore subject; obviously you were closer with the Marauders, but you couldn’t stand them judging Severus the way they did. It drove you mad.

Remus sighed. “How about this: you lot can hate on Severus all you want, but never in front of (y/n). Sound good?”

“Sure” James and Peter said without hesitation, and Sirius nodded.

“Yeah, ‘kay, fine” you muttered. An arm was slung over your shoulder, and you looked up to see Sirius grinning at you.

“But if you get caught in the crossfire when we play a prank on him, it isn’t our fault” he said smugly.

You poked him harshly in the side. “Watch your step, Padfoot. You might start a war with an attitude like that.”

“Bring it on” he grinned.

Oh.

It was _on_ alright.

It started when you, Lily and Severus were walking through the corridors. A stink pellet was thrown at you, releasing a horrid smell. It was a combination of rotten eggs and poo, filling the entire hallway. The cackling of three boys drew your attention, and you saw Sirius, James and Peter appear around the corner with grins on their faces.

“ _Merlin_ this stinks” Lily said, voice muffled by her robes as she held them in front of her nose. All the students looked irritated or pissed, but your eyes were the only ones with a glint of amusement in them.

That was how the First Great Prank War of Hogwarts begun, and boy, it was _fun_.

You retaliated a week after, hitting them where it hurt. They came downstairs to breakfast, absolutely horrified and enraged.

“(Y/N)!” James roared as he entered the Great Hall. Of course it immediately drew attention to the trio coming in, and silenced the room immediately.

Remus sat beside you with an incredulous look on his face.

“Please tell me you didn’t…” he muttered.

A sly grin spread across your cheeks as the Gryffindor table burst out laughing and the Hufflepuffs started snickering, whereas the other two houses merely rolled their eyes, whether or not with a smile on their face.

“Nice hair, boys. Trying to start a trend?” you said innocently.

“NICE HAIR?! YOU DYED IT PINK!”

“And it look marvellous” you grinned.

“NOT THE HAIR, (Y/N)!” Sirius yelled, “THAT’S CROSSING THE LINE!”

“You’re the one who wanted a war” you shrugged.

“Yeah, but- but _this_? This is _evil_!”

“She has a point, it looks rather good. Suits your eyes” Lily said, making the surrounding Gryffindors howl with laughter.

“Ready to admit your defeat, boys?” you grinned.

“Never” they hissed.

Two weeks later, they retorted by swapping your soap with Frog Spawn Soap from Zonko’s, to which you retaliated by swapping their teacups by Nose Biting Teacups.

Then they slipped a potion into your cup, making you speak backwards the entire time. After it had worn off – about three days later – you hexed them with pig tails.

That’s when they crossed the line for you.

They transfigured all of your trousers into skirts.

_Bloody skirts._

You felt ridiculous, but you were damned if you’d let it show. Instead, you went to seek help from a higher power.

Peeves.

It was a Monday when you went to see him. Your final class was charms, and Peeves was known to lurk on the way from Charms to Transfiguration.

“Oi, (l/n) where are you going?” Sirius called after you as you took a different turn.

“She’s probably still pissed about her new wardrobe” James sniggered.

You rolled your eyes. “You wish, Potter. I’m going to see McGonagall, I’ve got to ask her something.”

“We’ll come with” Remus offered.

“You’d rather not, believe me. It’s girls’ stuff” you lied.

A look of horror came across James and Sirius’ faces, and they dragged Peter and Remus off into the other direction, muttering something along the likes of ‘bloody women’. You cackled and turned around, continuing your way. Walking into the secluded room where Peeves was known to hang out, you looked around if you could spot the poltergeist. The place was filled with junk and dust, and you could barely see a thing.

“Peeves?” you called out.

“What’s this?” came a cheerful voice from the top of a shelf, “Did a student come to see me?”

“Yeah, I am. Nice bow tie by the way.” _Flattery never hurt someone, right?_

“Why thank you very much!” he said proudly, adjusting the tie a bit. “I’m very fond of it! But where are my manners? Let me make some tea!”

He floated around the abnormally messy room, throwing things around, looking for a kettle.

“Actually I’m here for business” you smirked. That caught his attention immediately, a sly grin forming on his lips as well.

“I’m listening…”

You plotted and schemed for about an hour, and it wasn’t long until you went downstairs for dinner.

“Hey boys” you said, sliding in next to Remus. They greeted you back, talked to you about how the common room had been packed with people because of the cold. It wasn’t until fifteen minutes later that anything of significance happened, that something being Peeves.

No-one had noticed him until it was too late; buckets and buckets of green slime got dumped on Sirius, James and Peter’s heads.

You burst out laughing, along with the other students, while the three of them just stared at you in shock.

And then, with an almighty battle cry, James and Sirius leapt over the table, tackling you to the ground. They smeared the slime all over you. You managed to pull James in a head lock but the favour was returned immediately by Sirius.

“Peeves! Help me!” you shouted, and Peeves gladly joined the fight, much to the surprise of other students. The scene went on for a couple more seconds before you were interrupted by a furious (and slightly amused, not that she’d ever admit it) professor McGonagall.

“MISTER POTTER, MISTER BLACK AND MISS (L/N)!”

The four of you froze. Yes, Peeves froze as well, mouthing an uh-oh. “Good luck” he whispered, and flew off.

“How about you let go of each other?” she seethed. You three scrambled off each other in a blink, looking down to the ground. “This has gone on long enough” he continued in a stern voice. “I expect the three of you in my office after dinner.”

“Yes professor” you muttered, and went back to your seats. Once the three of you sat down again, grins spread on your faces.

“Worth it” you muttered, and they agreed full heartedly.

It turned out you three received three weeks of detention with Hagrid, in which you had more fun than remorse. Hagrid didn’t mind, he rather enjoyed the company you provided. James and you however did both receive a howler. James’ came first, it shouting about ‘ _HOW DARE YOU ATTACK A YOUNG GIRL, ESPECIALLY ONE AS EXEMPLARY AS (Y/N)!_ ’ and so on. It made you all snigger, James included. The next day, yours arrived. However, you received both an ordinary letter as a howler; the former was form your father, but the latter came from an unexpected person.

“ _(Y/N) (M/N) (L/N), I CANNOT BELIEVE IT! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING, PICKING A FIGHT WITH YOUR FRIENDS?! AND THAT WITHOUT ME!”_ Gallagher’s voice filled the Great Hall. _“DAD IS ANGRY THAT YOU DID THIS, BUT ME? OH NO, I’M FURIOUS! NEXT TIME DO IT RIGHT, AND MAKE SURE YOU WIN AT LEAST! If you did win though, congratulations, I have no idea how it ended. How did it go? Let me know! BUT THAT’S BESIDE THE POINT! NEXT TIME, HOW ABOUT YOU HAVE A FIGHT WHERE THE TEACHERS DON’T SEE YOU, INSTEAD OF RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEIR NOSES! NO SISTER OF MINE GETS CAUGHT DURING A BRAWL, AM I CLEAR?! Oh, and tell McGonagall I said hi.”_

The entire hall was sniggering as the letter fell back on the table; everyone had heard it, including the teachers. Looking over to their table, you saw professor Dumbledore with an amused twinkle in his eyes, and you couldn’t help but calling over: “Professor McGonagall! Gallagher says hi!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to thank you all once again for all the comments and kudos I've been getting, they all mean so much to me. <3
> 
> I don't own anything, and took some descriptions literally from either the books, pottermore or harry potter wikia.
> 
> I don't own you either, but I'd say that's kind of obvious.


	21. A good thing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> x Second year x

The end of the school year drew nearer, and your Potions skills still sucked. You didn’t blame Severus for this; it was all your fault. The cauldron just hated you, at least according to yourself. Professor Slughorn started to notice your lack of talent as well, so he made sure Severus and you had all the time you needed to work on your skills. He even made your study sessions obligatory, claiming that you might blow up the dungeons someday if they weren’t- and quite frankly, _all_ your friends agreed. No, really, _all of them._ Oh, how you revelled in the faith people had in you.

All of this meant of course that you had less time to spend on your other lessons, such as Transfiguration and Defence Against the Dark Arts. Read; _especially_ Transfiguration and Defence Against the Dark Arts. The stress coursing through your body had been on an all-time high, and professor McGonagall was not pleased. At all.

“Miss (l/n)” she called you out at the ending of a lesson. It was a Thursday, and Transfiguration was your last class. You still had your Charms homework unfinished (for which you still needed _eleven friggin’ inches_ ) and were desperate to go back to the common room, but fate decided to be against you that day. You cursed inwardly when you heard her call your name. Remus gave you a sympathetic look before he exited the classroom - you just hoped he would be sympathetic enough to let you copy his homework.

You walked up to the teacher’s desk. Professor McGonagall’s eyes looked at you from behind her moon shaped spectacles. “I have to say, miss (l/n), that I can’t help but feel disappointed when it comes to your schoolwork. The quality of the work you do continues dropping, and I fear that if you go on like this, your grade might not even reach an A. And I have been hearing the same things about you from professor Merrythought.”

“B-but I love Transfiguration! And Defence Against the Dark Arts as well!”

“Passion for a course is not enough, miss (l/n). It takes hard work and dedication to succeed. Now I know that you have a talent for this course, and it appears for Defence against the Dark Arts as well, but talent _alone_ won’t quite do.”

“I-I’m sorry Professor” you stammered, blushing furiously.

“May I ask _why_ exactly your recent grades have been this low?”

And then it just all came spilling out. “It’s just that I’m busy with so much at the same time; James insists that I train for quidditch so that I can make the team next year which I know isn’t really that important but I would really love to be a beater, a-and professor Slughorn said that I have to keep on working on my potions with Severus which is really _really hard_ because he’s like a genius and I’m a straight disaster when it comes to Potions and everyone just keeps on giving loads of homework and our finals are coming up and then there’s this bloody animagus project-“

“What animagus project?”

…

_Poomp. You were so pissed._

“S-sorry professor, I didn’t mean to ramble-“

“ _What animagus project?_ ”

“It’s nothing, really-“

“Miss (l/n)” she interrupted you again, this time silencing you. “The month after Christmas I couldn’t help but notice a subtle aroma of Mandrake lingering around you and your friends. At the time, you weren’t even working with Mandrake in Herbology, and I would know, because I personally asked professor Sprout. Now of course, this raised my suspicion.”

_POOMP._

“As you know, as a teacher, I am obliged to put an end to any experiments, conducted by my students, which I deem a possible threat. Am I clear?”

“Yes Professor” you whispered, barely audible.

“Then you should also know that I should and will not tell you the location of a book containing vital knowledge of this complicated spell, which happens to be in the restricted section of our school library.”

“Ehm, y-yes, professor?”

“And on top of that, I will most certainly not speak a word of the change in guarding duties around the library at 2 at night, sharp, which leaves the library empty for 5 minutes at most.”

“Of course, professor.”

“I take it you understood perfectly everything I said. Tell me, miss (l/n), what do you conclude from our conversation?”

_‘Besides that you’re the coolest teacher in history?’_

“That I should not neglect my other classes, no matter how much troubles I’m having for potions, professor.”

“Good. I will see you next class.”

“Certainly, professor” you nodded, and walked away. Leaving the classroom, you couldn’t believe that had actually happened. As soon as you rounded a corner you sprinted towards the common room, and when you arrived there three minutes later, you were so out of breath that you needed a moment before you could speak.

Sirius, James, Peter and Remus were all looking at you expectantly as you tried to choke out words.

“Merlin’s beard, (y/n), did Peeves chase you or something?” Sirius asked.

“Nah, Peeves is her partner in crime, he’d never prank her. She’s one of the few students he likes” James grinned. “It was probably McGonagall. Was it _that_ bad?”

“Marauder’s – _breathe_ – meeting – _breathe_ – now” you managed to choke out, making them jump up and drag you up to their room without hesitation. You groaned at the stairs, and the air was pushed out of your lungs once more when Sirius dropped you onto his bed.

“What happened?” he asked once James had closed the doors, dimmed the lights and lit the Ceremonial Candle of Vows.

You, once more with a somewhat healthy breathing pattern, didn’t have as much trouble replying this time. “Minnie knows.”

“She- she _knows??_ ” Peter squeaked.

“Please tell me it isn’t about what I think it is” James whined.

“About our Animagus project, yes” you said. “But- and here’s the strange part- she doesn’t mind.”

“She- _excuse me??”_ Remus freaked. “ _She doesn’t mind?? I thought she was meant to be a responsible teacher!!_ ”

“She is” you shrugged, “she said that it was her job to put an end to it.”

“But I thought you said-“

“I _did_ , Padfoot, and she also said that she shouldn’t tell us that there’s a book we will probably need, in the restricted section. She also shouldn’t tell us that the library is unguarded at two o’clock at night for five minutes tops.”

“I should write this down” Sirius said.

“Yeah, you should. And then wat?” James asked.

“She just let me go.”

Peter looked almost petrified. “Just like that?”

“Just like that.”

“… Wow” Sirius said after he had written everything down. “Told you she likes you.”

“Shut up.”

…

“By the way, Moony, can I borrow your Charms homework?”

~ Happy time skip, sad time skip, mentally disturbed time skip ~

“See you guys later” you said as you started to make your way to the dungeons. You were already running a bit late, and Severus was barely in a good mood anymore when he had to teach you.

“Where are you going?” James asked befuddled.

“Dude, she has potions” Sirius deadpanned.

“Oh. I’ll come with!” he said excitedly.

“Why would you do that?” Peter asked.

You grinned. “He wants to see his Lily Flower.”

“Shut it, Paws.”

“Awww, does ickle Pwongs have a wittle cwush?”

“SHUT UP PADFOOT!”

“How cute, he’s blushing…”

“No, Moony, not you too… Peter, I swear to Godric if you say something I’ll hex you” he grumbled, making you all laugh.

“C’mon, let’s go” you grinned, dragging him along. “BYE GUYS!” you called, before rounding a corner and heading down the stairs.

“You really like her, don’t you?” you said with a slight grin.

“I swear I’m going to marry her someday” he sighed dreamily, making you giggle.

“Good luck with that” you muttered.

A few moments later you had arrived in the dungeons, and as suspected, Severus and Lily were there talking to each other. “You’re late” the boy said when he heard you arrive.

“Yeah, sorry about that” you grinned. “Hey Lily.”

“Hey” she greeted, but a little strained since her eyes were on James. Severus seemed to completely ignore his presence.

“Hello Lily” James said with a slight blush dusting his cheeks.

Instead of greeting him back, she just asked: “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, I- um, just figured I could walk (y/n) to her class, y’know?” he slightly stammered.

_Smooth, lover boy. Smooth._

“Oh, okay then.” _She didn’t buy it_. “I’ll just go look for Mary now” she said, and started to walk away.

“I think I saw her on the grounds” James said. “Come on, I’ll take you!” He grabbed her arm and dragged her along, much to her surprise and slight annoyance.

“What was that all about?” Severus asked as you entered the classroom.

You shrugged. “He wants to spend some time with her, get to know her better.”

“B- but she hates him!”

“Hate is a strong word. But yes, she does. I’m guessing she’ll whine my ears off this evening” you laughed, making him snigger a bit as well.

You quickly got started on the potion of the day. You read the recipe, gathered the ingredients, re-read the recipe, heated your cauldron, re-re-read your recipe, and then one more time to be certain. Severus looked on amusedly at your fretting, making you huff.

“Get that smirk off your face. I just want to make sure I don’t blow up the place.”

“That doesn’t make it less funny” he remarked.

You finally got on to making the potion, Sleeping Draught, hoping you would do everything right. You added four sprigs of lavender and two measures of the standard ingredient to your mortar, and crushed them to a paste. Next, you added two blobs of flobberworm mucus to your cauldron, followed by two measures of the standard ingredient, and heated the mixture for 30 seconds. Then you added the mixture from in your mortar. You proceeded taking carefully measured steps, and when you waved your wand to finish the potion, you couldn’t help but feel relieved. You actually felt you had done good this time.

“So? What do you think?” you asked Severus as he inspected the fluid.

He remained silent for a couple more moments. Finally when you felt like you couldn’t take his silence anymore, he stood up straight and grabbed a big spoon.

“I think it’s safe to try.”

“Great!” you cheered, until his words truly dawned on you. “No, wait, not great! I’m _not_ going to drink that!”

“Correct, you’re not. I am” he stated as he filled the spoon.

“What?! No! What if I did something wrong?!”

“Then I will be in trouble, and afterwards _you_ ’ll be in trouble” he shrugged, as if it were nothing. “If I fall down, don’t panic, it means that the potions works.”

“Yeah, I’m not _that_ dense, Severus.”

He brought the filled spoon to his lips, blew on the potion and gulped the liquid down. The effects were immediate.

Him falling to the ground, knocked out: normal.

_Him choking on the liquid, which had suddenly turned into a thick slime; not normal._

**Balls.**

Panicking, you had no idea what to do. You were never taught what to do when someone was dying from a potion!! You scrambled to the cabinet which held most of the ingredients, and frantically started to search for something, _anything_ , that could help. _‘Why isn’t there just one big bottle of ‘antidote’??’_ you cursed inwardly. It wasn’t until your eyes fell on one particular label that you knew what to do.

[ _Bezoar_ ]

“Yes!” you yelped, and snatched the package from the shelve. As you tried to open it you landed back next to Severus. You opened his mouth, took the stone and shoved it down his throat. “C’mon, **work, damnit!** ” At first it didn’t really seem to work, but after a short moment he started to breathe normally again.

When he opened his eyes, the first thing he said was: “I am _never_ trying one of your potions again.”

You felt so relieved that you barely took notice to his comment, and quite frankly, you would have agreed with him if you had. “Thank Merlin you’re okay” you breathed as you hugged him. He just sat there awkwardly. “Right, sorry” you said as you helped him up. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just want to know why it didn’t work.”

You looked over the recipe again. You looked step by step, and didn’t find anything that could’ve gone wrong, until you reached the step that was last but one.

_Stir seven times, clockwise._

You made a circular motion with your hand in one direction, and then in the other, and groaned. “Found it.”

“You stirred counter clockwise? Well, that explains the strange density of your potion” he huffed.

“STRANGE DENSITY?! I ALMOST KILLED YOU!!”

“Rookie mistake. Besides, you saved my life as well, in a very clever manner too, might I add. I’ll be sure to tell professor Slughorn about this.”

“What? No, no! Please don’t-“

“He will be pleased to hear it” Severus assured you. “you did a good thing.”

With that, he started to leave. You watched him walk off with an incredulous look.

“I ALMOST KILLED YOU!!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took me such a long time to write this, but uni started a week ago and I4ve been really busy!  
> Thank you for bearing with me, and once again; thank you for all the love I've been receiving, it means the world to me!
> 
> I don't own anything, and took some descriptions literally from either the books, pottermore or harry potter wikia.
> 
> I don't own you either, but I'd say that's kind of obvious.


	22. Bit by bit, it all changes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> x Second/Third year x

The rest of the year passed without you almost killing anyone, so I’d say it was good enough. Your Potions skills were slightly less bad, which made them just good enough for you to pass your finals. You rocked Transfiguration and Defence Against the Dark Arts, and all your other grades were decent enough. You mostly had E’s, two O’s and one A.

Afterwards, you bought Severus the biggest box of Honeyduke’s sweets that you could find.

You looked forward to seeing Gallagher and your father again, but when the summer ended, you were just as happy to go back to Hogwarts. Two months had passed by quickly, and when the time came, you hugged your father and brother goodbye and got back on the train.

This time however, things were a bit different.

There was no happy banter when you joined the boys in the compartment. Instead, sour glances were cast towards the floor.

“What happened?” you asked immediately as you put away your stuff and went around to give them all a hug.

Sirius sighed. “My brother wants to join the Death Eaters.”

You paled. “Regulus? A Death Eater?”

He nodded.

“B-but that’s ridiculous!” you huffed. “He’s a good kid!”

“Yeah, he is” Sirius sighed. “He’s my brother and I love him, but my mother keeps encouraging him and talks about Voldemort like he’s her god or something. Honestly, the woman’s delusional.”

“I’m sure there’s a logical explanation to this” you sighed, not being sure at all.

“(Y/n), you should have seen his room. It was completely filled with news articles about him. He’s not one of them yet because he’s too young, but his mind seems to be set. He wants to be one when he grows up.”

You sighed and sat down next to him. “I’m sorry, Sirius. I know you care about him…”

He tried to hold back a sob, but barely managed as he choked out: “My family’s just so f-fucked up…”

You brought his head to rest on your shoulder as James closed the curtains with his wand. He cried quietly, tears dropping onto your shirt. On his other side James slung an arm around his back, trying to comfort him. Your heart broke as you felt a wetness spreading on your collarbone.

“He might still change his mind” Remus said. “I know it’s scary now, but he might. If he gets a nudge in the right direction…”

“From whom, huh?” Sirius snapped, choking on his words. “My mother? My cousin Bellatrix – who, by the way, already is one? My father? Or my other cousin, who’s getting married to that bloody Malfoy wanker? Huh?! From whom?!”

“From you” you replied softly, contrasting his outburst. “You are one of the people who loves him most, Sirius. And believe me, he cares about you too. You don’t have to try and talk him out of it, but if you show him there’s another way, he might come to his senses. He’s a smart kid, he’ll come around.”

“And what if he doesn’t?” he whispered.

“Then he’ll still be your brother.”

He laid his head back down on your shoulder, and remained quiet. After a while, he muttered a quiet: “thank you.”

“Any time” you said, stroking his hair.

The rest of the train ride was spent in silence.

~ Choo chooooooooo!! Time skip coming through! ~

Once you had arrived at Hogwarts, you all tried your best to lift the mod, and it worked. The usual playful banter was back,  and you tried to forget what was going on in the world. Your moods improved drastically, and it was like nothing had happened. You didn’t even let Dumbledore’s loaded speech wear you down. You all chatted about what fun you had had during the summer, you talked about how you and Gallagher had been training your beating skills, how Remus had found new books over the summer, Peter’s new pet; a rat (he had really embraced his Patronus) and how James and Sirius had spent a lot of their summer together. Mary, Lily, Alice and Frank had joined the conversation, and you all immediately felt happy again.

That night, when you went to bed, you, Lily and Mary had talked about a lot of different things; how adorably confused the new students had been about everything, about a cute fourth-year Ravenclaw Mary had spotted- poor girl, she was head over heels- and finally, Sirius Black.

“How come you have not noticed?” Lily exclaimed. “I don’t know what happened between you two, but you can’t stop looking at each other.”

Mary giggled. “She’s right, you’re obviously smitten.”

A redness spread on your cheeks. “Not true!”

“Then why are you blushing?” Lily teased.

“I’m blushing because he’s my best friend! He just had a hard summer and I was worried about him…”

“This isn’t about this summer, (y/n). I saw it last year as well” she grinned.

“Say whatever you will” you huffed, “he’s my friend, that’s all.”

You didn’t know where Lily got the idea. He was your best friend! Sure, you hugged him most, but that didn’t mean anything at all! You hugged Gallagher a lot as well, that didn’t mean you were into incest… And you really were worried about him. You just hoped he’d be okay. When you finally went to bed, you found that you couldn’t sleep at all. Images of your best friend crying went through your mind, and when you finally fell asleep, it haunted your dreams as well.

The next morning you all got your timetables. You didn’t have all your lessons with the Marauders anymore, since you had two electives. You had chosen Ancient Runes and Care of Magical Creatures, whereas James and Sirius had chosen Divination and Muggle studies (“easy points, duh” James had said), Peter had Care of Magical creatures and Divination, and Remus had Ancient Runes and Muggle studies. No-one had chosen Arithmancy, but that was because it was basically Divination with mathematics. You hated mathematics.

Other than that, you had Transfiguration and Defence Against the Dark Arts with the Hufflepuffs, Charms, Herbology and Astronomy with The Ravenclaws and lastly you had Potions and History of Magic with Slytherin house.

“Potions with those gits again!” James complained.

“Hush” you said, “Severus is the only reason I passed for Potions last year.”

“Doesn’t mean he’s not a git” he muttered into his cup. You decided to ignore him.

“I wonder what it’s like to have Defence Against the Dark Arts with the Hufflepuffs” Peter said, smoothly changing the subject.

“I think it’ll be nice” you said, liking taking classes with the Hufflepuffs. You really admired them, they were so kind and fair towards everyone. At least, that was what you’d seen of them.

“It can’t be worse than last year” Sirius huffed.

“That depends on the teacher. I really liked professor Merrythought” you pouted.

“Told you” Frank joined in on your conversation, “hasn’t been one for longer than a year in ages now.”

“Don’t exaggerate” Alice chuckled, “sixteen years is not ‘ages’. Though I do wonder why he left.”

“Nobody knows” James said.

“He was needed in the Auror department” you deadpanned, wondering why no-one knew this. They looked at you with a baffled look on their faces.

“How did you know that?” Remus asked.

You shrugged. “My brother’s an Auror, he told me. Why? What’s the matter?”

“Well, that explains why nobody knew” Remus sighed. “People don’t tend to flaunt with the fact that they’re an Auror. Only a few people are known Aurors.”

“Like Alastor Moody” James piped in. “The guy’s a legend.”

“For example” Remus nodded. “Being an Auror is dangerous, not only for yourself, but it puts your family in danger as well. Especially these days, with Voldemort gaining so much power.”

“Oh” you sighed in realisation. “Well shit. I thought it was common knowledge… Whoops…”

“Don’t worry, we won’t tell anyone” Frank laughed. “Besides, no-one heard us.”

“You sure?” you muttered guiltily.

“Absolutely.”

“So, who’s the new teacher?” Mary asked.

“It’s some guy named professor Jigger” Sirius said.

“Like the book?” you asked. Seeing their deadpan faces, you realised no-one had any idea what you were talking about. “Arsenius Jigger wrote the book ‘The Essential Defence against the Dark Arts’” you explained.

“Ah, him.”

“Shut up, Potter.”

~ °˖✧°˖✧°˖✧ And it’s hard to make a time skip to the cold November rain °˖✧°˖✧°˖✧ ~

He turned out to be quite a good teacher, and the lessons with the Hufflepuffs were fun. They always had been, with Transfiguration as well. That’s where you were now. You were all having a lecture on Animagi – the four of you really struggled to maintain straight faces, much to the amusement of professor McGonagall, not that she’d ever tell. It was a Thursday, and when class ended, you all went to the Great Hall for dinner. The day had been pleasant and normal, until an owl swooped in and landed on the teachers’ table. You hadn’t paid much attention to it at first, but when Professor Dumbledore read it, his face was covered with a frown and a sad look. Next, he passed the letter to professor McGonagall, who confusedly read the piece of parchment before a sad and worried look covered her features as well.

Remus, who had followed your glance, said: “What d’you think it’s about?”

You shook your head. “I don’t know, but it can’t be good.”

When Peter, Sirius and James caught on with what you were talking about, they turned to look at the professors as well, who were now quietly conversing with one another. When Professor McGonagall cast a look in your direction, you instantly grew worried.

“Why did she look at us?” James muttered.

“She looked at one of us, not sure who it was” Remus muttered.

Next, she stood up, and looked at your group again while slowly making her way over.

“Not me” James said.

“Me neither” Sirius and Peter added.

“I don’t think it’s me either” Remus whispered as she got closer. Her eyes pierced yours.

“Shit” you muttered, and held on to Remus’ hand, who gave you a reassuring squeeze.

“Miss (l/n), if you’d please follow me” she stated.

“What’s going on?” you asked, cursing how scared you sounded.

“I’m afraid you’ll have to come with me.” There was one thing you knew: whatever it was she had to say, you didn’t want to hear it alone. Currently you were squeezing Remus’ hand so hard he wouldn’t be able to let go if he wanted to.

Figuring she’d understand, you asked her if the others could come. After a short moment of consideration she nodded, and the five of you stood up simultaneously.

You quietly followed her out of the Great Hall, away from the curious eyes and ears of your fellow students. When you entered the nearest classroom, the pit in your stomach felt so big you thought it was going to swallow you whole.

“What’s going on?” you asked one more time, with Remus’ hands still in yours and Sirius’ in your other.

She sighed. “I’m afraid it’s about your brother.”

You held on to your friends for dear life.

“He’s been severely injured in a confrontation with Death Eaters. He’s currently in St Mungo’s.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *shocks* what a mean writer!! >:O
> 
> Soooooooooo guess what  
> I'm speeding things up a bit. The next chapets will probably be at a higher speed, given that we still have a long way to go! ;)
> 
> AND I have a question for you all!  
> I have a theory about the reader's heritage, but it involves another fandom. Not knowing beforehand which fandom this is, would you like me to use it in the story, or would you prefer the reader's background just to remain a mystery? FYI, you don't need to be part of the other fandom to understand anything; everything that you need to know I will tell.  
> So, what do you perfer? Slight crossover-ish, or a mystery? *wiggles eyebrows*
> 
> Anyway, let me know, every person gets only one vote! (So in order to avoid cheating and tokeep it fair, I will count only the votes from the actual users, not the guests. Sorry if you're a guest, love!)
> 
>  
> 
> I don't own anything, and took some descriptions literally from either the books, pottermore or harry potter wikia.
> 
> I don't own you either, but I'd say that's kind of obvious.


	23. The lesson of a lifetime

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> x Third Year x

_“He’s been severely injured in a confrontation with Death Eaters. He’s currently in St Mungo’s.”_

The words rang in your ears as you six made your way to Dumbledore’s office. It was a strange feeling you had; you weren’t exactly sad, nor worried. You didn’t know what you felt. You were just grateful your friends were there.

When you arrived at professor Dumbledore’s office, he was already there.

“Miss (l/n)” he greeted you, “feel free to use my fireplace, you can floo to the hospital.”

“Sorry professor, I- I’ve never used floo powder before. I- I don’t know-“

“I’ll show you” Sirius said. “Can I go with her?” he asked.

“Of course” professor Dumbledore said without hesitation.

“C’mon (y/n)” he said, leading you towards the fireplace - your hand had still been clasped in his. Letting go of Remus, you followed him. “Okay, so you take a bit of this powder, and then you step into the fireplace, say where you want to go – very clearly, you don’t want to end up somewhere else – and you throw down the power.”

“Just like that?”

“Just like that. Here, I’ll show you.” He did exactly as he had explained, and before you it he was engulfed in green flames and disappeared.

“Your turn” James said behind you with a hand on your shoulder. “Good luck.”

You stepped into the fireplace, got some powder from the jar Remus was handing you, said “Saint Mungo’s Hospital” and threw down the powder. Next, you saw a flash of green, and before you knew it you stumbled out of the fireplace, straight into Sirius.

“Easy there” he said, steadying you. “You okay?”

“Yeah” you nodded absentmindedly, looking around the room.

“(Y/n)” he said, drawing your attention back to him. “Are. You. Okay?”

“I’m fine” you huffed. “Really, I just want to see him.”

“I’ll go ask where we can find him” he said, and went to the reception. You didn’t follow him, instead you looked around a bit, and it looked exactly like a hospital should, except for one thing: the security. Everyone who wanted to go further inside was searched thoroughly before being allowed to continue. You were watching a wizard searching an older man when Sirius reappeared next to you.

“We have to be on the fourth floor” he said, leading you towards the security wizards.

“Names?” a witch asked, looking you both up and down before turning to her list.

“(Y/n) Ollivander (l/n) and Sirius Black” you introduced yourselves.

At hearing his last name she looked back to Sirius. “And what is the reason of your visit?”

“My brother – Gallagher Ollivander – was injured in- in a fight” you said, and suddenly you broke down in tears. Sirius swung his arm around you immediately as your sobs filled the entrance hall, the severity of the situation dawning on you in one blow. You cried into Sirius’ shoulder, and barely registered the woman asking whether you had anything to declare and him saying that you didn’t. When he lead you to the stairs, he muttered comfort in your hair.

“He’s okay, (y/n). He’s alive, that’s what matters most. I’ll be right here for you. It’ll be okay…”

He never let go of you while you ascended the stairs, even after you’d stopped crying and calmed down a bit.

When you arrived on the fourth floor however, you felt like breaking down again as you immediately spotted your father in tears sitting next to a bed. The bed itself was behind a curtain, so you didn’t see Gallagher yet.

“Dad” you choked out, making him look up and hurry over to you. Sirius let you go so that you could hug him, and you didn’t let go for a long time.

“How is he?” you asked, once he let go.

“Alive. He’ll be okay, in time…” he sighed. The three of you approached the bed.

He was lying there, chest covered in bloody bandages and scratches all over his face. He was unconscious. “Is he in pain?”

“The healers have assured me that he isn’t” he sighed, worry and fatigue apparent in his voice. “However, the curse makes that his wounds keep opening. They’re too busy to keep on healing him every five minutes, so we just have to wait until the curse wears off.”

“I’ll do it” you said without hesitation and drew out your wand.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you” a grim voice said from behind you. Surprised, you turned around. A man stood there in Auror robes, he was tall and had a few scars covering his face and, quite frankly, was a bit scary. “Healing spells are tricky, get something wrong-“

“She won’t” Sirius interrupted him. “I’ve seen her do it several times. She’s a natural.”

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you” he muttered and sat down next to the bed.

You went to stand next to Gallagher, moved the sheets down a bit more, and placed your wand. “ _Vulnera Sanentur. Tergeo”_ you spoke, making the blood disappear.

“Told you” Sirius muttered.

“Who are you anyway?” you asked the man.

“Alastor Moody, co-worker of your brother.” You vaguely remembered James calling him a legend once.

“What happened to him?”

“(Y/n)-“ your father started to protest, but you cut him off.

“I want to know” you stated, leaving no room for argument. You turned back back at Moody with an expecting look on your face.

After a short silence in which he undoubtedly pondered whether he should tell you or not, he said: “Entrails Expelling Curse, nasty business. A Death Eater got him, Avery I think his name was. Good friend of You-Know-Who, very dangerous.”

“There’s an Avery at our school” you muttered absentmindedly, looking at your brother.

Sirius’ hand landed on your shoulder. “(Y/n), don’t go there. Avery didn’t do this, his father or uncle or something did. Not him.”

You nodded. He was right, it hadn’t been the Avery you knew. And yet, you couldn’t help the sudden hate toward the boy flaring up in your chest. Whatever anyone said, Avery was a pureblood fanatic.

And you hated him.

Sirius had left that same day, leaving you with your family. For two weeks you had spent all your time at Gallagher’s bedside, healing him every time it was needed, which was indeed every five minutes. You barely slept, ate very little, and when you weren’t healing him you were trying to work for school. Remus brought you your stuff every day, telling you about what you had missed. You barely understood what he was saying, as the matter didn’t make sense anymore. You had missed too many lessons and were really getting behind. Your father had advised you to go back to school, but you had refused. All that didn’t matter to you, as your brother needed you most. Remaining with him was your number one priority.

That was, until after almost two weeks, Alastor Moody showed up.

“Your dad told me you didn’t want to go back to school” he said, not even bothering saying hello.

“Gallagher needs me most” you responded.

“No, he doesn’t.”

“Yes he does.”

“You want to protect him?”

“Of course I do” you snapped, turning around, facing him.

“He’s in good hands here. The nurses told me he only needs healing every hour or so, and that’s a good thing. You’ve kept him healthy this long, let them take it from here.”

“Then why hasn’t he woken up yet?” you hissed.

“Because these curses take time” he said, irritation evident in his voice. “Time, not constant healing or someone sitting next to his bed. Right now, all you can do is wait.”

“That’s not _all_ I can do-“

“You want to help him? Then go study. Go back to school” he snapped. “You’re not doing any good sulking and wasting your time here. Learn. Get better. Study, so that one day you’ll be able to help him properly, and not just by cleaning his bondages every hour.”

“You’re telling me to become an Auror?” you asked bewildered.

“I was more aiming for Healer, since you’re obviously talented at the subject.”

“No. I’m good at Defence Against the Dark Arts. I’m _very_ good.”

“Then prove it” he hissed, getting to your height end staring you dead in the eyes. “Study. Go back to school, and _prove_ that you’re good enough to become an Auror. Because right now, all I see is a little girl sulking at her brother’s bedside.”

“Fine” you hissed, and got up. “Fine, I’ll prove it to you. I _can_ and I _will_ do this.”

He chuckled darkly. “If I had a Sickle for every time I’ve heard that…”

You narrowed your eyes at him, and whipped out your wand. Calming your nerves, you let you emotions drift back a year, to that evening at the lake. “Expecto Patronum” you said, and before he could blink a big, white dog jumped him, making him fall over.

The man laughed – quite maniacally actually – and mumbled something along the likes of “Imagine that, a bloody thirteen year old.”

A grin spread on your lips. You gave your brother a quick kiss on his forehead and left the room. Your Patronus vanished, leaving a group of startled witches and wizards looking at your retreating back.

It was only many years later, when you looked back at that conversation, you realised just exactly how defining that moment had been for the rest of your life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tah daaaaaaaah! :D  
> Hope you liked it!
> 
> Ps: MHYGODYOUGUYS I WENT TO THE PREMIERE OF FANTASTIC BEASTS AND IT WAS AWESOME
> 
> I don't own anything, and took some descriptions literally from either the books, pottermore or harry potter wikia.
> 
> I don't own you either, but I'd say that's kind of obvious.


	24. Some self control

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> x Third Year x

“It’s (y/n)!” Peter exclaimed as he saw you arrive in the common room. He jumped up immediately and came to hug you, the others following closely behind. Lily, Mary, Frank and Alice came over as well, all of them welcoming you back in their own way.

“Are you okay? What happened?” Mary asked.

“These nobheads wouldn’t tell us anything” Lily huffed, gesturing to the Marauders.

“It wasn’t our place to tell you anything!” Remus argued, clearly having been over the topic multiple times.

“Thanks guys” you said, “for not telling anyone.” You sighed. “My brother is in the hospital. He was attacked by Death Eaters, they hit him with an Entrails Expelling Curse.”

Frank whistled. “That’s a rough one, sorry (y/n).”

“Oh my god” Alice said, “is he okay?”

“He hasn’t woken up yet and the spell hasn’t completely worn off yet, but he’ll be okay. It just takes time…”

“Oh, (y/n), I’m so sorry” Lily sighed, hugging you. “How are you?”

“It’s okay, _I’m_ okay” you muttered, hugging her back. “At least, I am now… I got a real kick in the butt, I guess.”

“Your dad convince you to come back?” Remus asked.

“No, actually. He tried, but I didn’t really listen. Merlin, I’ll have to write him. No, Moody talked to me.”

James gasped. “Moody? As in Alastor Moody?? Legendary Auror??”

“Yeah, didn’t Sirius tell you? He was there when we arrived.”

“No, he didn’t tell me anything” he hissed, looking at the boy in question. After a blaming glance, he looked back to you. “What’s he like? Is he tall? I bet he’s tall. Oh, does he have any cool scars? What wand does he have? Did he show you a spell?”

“Wow James, never saw you as the fangirling type” you chuckled.

“I’m not a fangirling type!”

“Of course not, you’re only obsessing over a man you’ve never met.”

“I’m not obsessing!!”

“You are” Sirius chimed in.

“Totally” Remus said.

“Sorry man” Peter shrugged.

You giggled. “Don’t worry, maybe I’ll introduce you some time, then you can ask him for his autograph.”

He gasped. “DO YOU REALLY THINK HE’LL GIVE ME HIS AUTOGRAPH??”

~ WHAT TEAM???!!!???!?!!??! TIME SKIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ~

A week later you were glaring daggers at the Slytherin table. Avery sat next to Severus, and they were talking. Actually talking, as in having a decent conversation amongst friends. Mulciber, Wilkes and Rosier were there as well.

‘It wasn’t him’ you repeated in your head. It had become your mantra over the last week, but you just couldn’t force yourself to stop hating him. Your brother was still in the hospital, and even though he had woken up, you couldn’t bear the thought of him being there while Avery was laughing and having fun with his friends.

“(Y/n)? Hellooooooo? She isn’t listening, is she?” James sighed, reminding you of the conversation going on between your friends.

“Hm? Sorry James” you said once you realised you had been ignoring them completely.

“(Y/n), honestly, you _have_ to snap out of it. Avery senior will get what’s coming for him, but junior over there in innocent. A git, yes, but innocent.”

“I know, and you’re right, but that doesn’t make me hate him less.”

Remus draped his arm around your shoulder. “You can hate him all you want, but please, don’t blame him for something he hasn’t done.”

“I’m not” you huffed, but leaned into his side anyway.

“Good” he said, and tightened his grip on you. “Now, are you going to finish that? Or will you let James steal your food again?” he said pointing to your plate and the boy on the other side of the table looking at it like a prey.

You picked up your fork and knife again without changing position, and said: “James, honestly, there’s food right in front of you.”

“I know, but food always tastes better off someone else’s plate” he smirked.

“Merlin you’re an idiot” you replied with a grin of your own.

He winked at you in response, making you laugh and your mood lighten.

It wasn’t until the next day that your mood worsened again. It was on a Friday, when you and Remus came from Ancient Runes and were walking to Charms Class, and passed three people you really didn’t want to see; Avery, Mulciber and Narcissa Black. Of course, everything would have been fine, had the latter not been boasting about how her sister had successfully hexed some muggle borns in Diagon Alley. To this, Avery replied how his father had put an Auror in Saint Mungo’s and how the git was still there.

You stiffened when you heard the words leave his mouth, and barely registered the ‘shit’ leaving Remus’.

“That _git_ is my brother” you hissed as you turned around, and drew your wand.

They turned as well, pretending they only just noticed you, and grinned. “No he isn’t, you’re just adopted. Or don’t you remember that?”

You raised your wand, but Remus grasped your arm before you could do anything.

“(Y/n), don’t. They’re just messing with you, let’s go or we’ll be late.”

“Yeah (y/n)” Narcissa mocked, “you surely wouldn’t want to miss your class, would you?”

“I would give the same advice to you” a stern voice replied, drawing your attention. McGonagall had appeared of the end of the hallway, and did _not_ look pleased.

“Miss (l/n), lower your wand.” You immediately did as she told. “As for you three” she said, turning to the Slytherins, “my office, now.”

“Professor, with all due respect” Narcissa started, “(l/n) was the one who drew her wand on us-“

“For which I will speak with her later” she said, casting you a pointed look, “but it appears I have to remind you that this school is founded on toleration, _not_ on violence. Am I clear?”

They nodded.

“My office, _now_ ” she repeated, and turned to leave.

Remus dragged you towards the classroom without hesitation. “That was close” he huffed. You remained silent. “(Y/n), you _do_ realise they only said those things because you were there, right?” When you still didn’t react, he continued: “I’m just trying to say that, if McGonagall hadn’t shown up, you’d probably have hexed them, and the _you_ would have been the one in trouble.”

“You’re right” you muttered. “Sorry, Rémy…”

He paused right in front of the door of Charms. “That’s okay” he said, and chuckled. “You owe me one though.”

“Yeah, I do” you muttered and gave him a hug. When you entered the classroom the lesson had already started, but professor Flitwick didn’t bother interrupting his lecture. Instead, the class went by as usual, and the rest of the day was quiet.

The morning after however wasn’t.

Severus still helped you with your potions, and every Saturday morning he helped you practice. This time was no different; you chose a potion from the curriculum, practiced until you got it right (even if it took you multiple sessions) and then chose a next one.

“All right, what’s wrong?” he asked while you were waiting for the potion to boil.

“Nothing. What makes you think something’s wrong?” you replied.

“You’ve been out of it today” he said. “And you haven’t attempted a joke once.”

“’m Not in the mood to joke, so what?”

“There’s more to it though” he sighed.

“Fine. You want to know what’s wrong? I hate Avery, and he’s your friend” you blurted out.

“So? I don’t like your friends either” he shrugged.

“Let me rephrase that: his father almost killed my brother and yesterday the git was boasting about it, and he’s your friend.”

“Are you telling me I can’t be friends with him?”

“That’s not what I said-“

“It _is_ what you meant.”

“What I meant” you said curtly, “is that he’s no good, and  you still choose to be friends with him, and that doesn’t sit well with me.”

He huffed. “Sounds familiar.”

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t know James cursed your brother. How is he doing? Still in the hospital? Want me to send some flowers, or will a ‘get well soon’ card do?” you hissed.

“Hey, I’m not saying who you should be friends with, so you shouldn’t be dictating me either!”

“I’m not dictating you! You’ve been bitching about my friends for three years now because they’ve pranked you a couple of times. Well guess what _princess_ , they’ve been pranking a _lot_ of people, not just you. And even if it were only you, there’s a difference between pranking and an attempt of murder.”

“Avery wasn’t the one who hurt you brother in the first place!”

“I’m not dense Severus, I know that! But he _was_ boasting about it, laughing about how he is still in the fucking hospital! That’s a difference! And don’t you dare tell me I can’t be angry about it, because I damn well can!” you ended shouting.

He looked at you with wide eyes. You sighed, turning back to the potion.

“So yeah, I’m a bit out of it today.”

That had been your first real fight with Severus. You had made up the next day and pretended nothing had happened, and he was still your friend, but from that moment on it hadn’t exactly been the same.

That evening, professor McGonagall called you to her office in order to talk about what had happened the day before.

“Miss (l/n), please, close the door” she said as you walked in. When you had done so she pointed to the chair in front of her desk, on which you sat down. “About the events that occurred yesterday. I want you to know that misters Avery and Mulciber and miss Black have been given punishments by professor Slughorn, as he is head of their house. As for you; I hope you realise the severity of the situation. You could have attacked a fellow student, and you are very lucky I showed up when I did. I don’t think mister Lupin would have been able to hold you back if I hadn’t.”

“Yes professor” you replied, letting her words sink in as you stared at your feet.

“I will not give you a punishment-“ your head whipped up “- _this_ time. Next time there _will_ be consequences. Understood?”

“Yes professor” you repeated.

“And if I may give some advice: this is not your war. Perhaps it will be some day, but not yet. I understand that you’re angry, but to let that anger out on your fellow students is _not_ the right way. Because after all, that _is_ what they are; your fellow students. No matter their relations or personalities. You have a lot of fight in you, miss (l/n), and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but know who and what you’re fighting. And most importantly, _when_. I have learned you wish to become an Auror?”

“Y- yes, how did you know?” you baffled asked.

“As head of your house, it is my job to know these things. Besides, I have been in contact with your father lately, he might have said something in his letters. But that’s beside the point. If you wish to become an Auror I will support you, but knows that it doesn’t only take knowledge and skill to become one, but also discipline and self-control; two things you might have to work on.”

“I understand professor, thank you for the advice.”

“No problem. Now I believe dinner has started already, you’d better go to your friends before they start to worry about you.”

You thanked her again, got up and walked out, heading straight towards the Great Hall.  And when you passed a sniggering and gloating Avery, you held up your chin and passed him like he was nothing more than a worm in the gutter.

An annoying one, but a worm nonetheless.

 

 

* * *

 

_As requested:_

_Spells used so far, in a chronological order:_

_Bat-bogey hex_ : makes bats fly out of your nose _  
Mutatio Skullus_ : illegal hex _  
Protego_ : shield charm  
_Anapneo_ : to clear the throat of someone choking  
_Tergeo_ : to clean up dried blood from a bleeding wound   
_Ferule_ : binds and splints fractures   
_Episkey_ : to treat mild to moderate injuries   
_Vulnera Sanentur_ : to heal deep gashes  
_Priori Incantatem_ : shows the latest spell cast by a wand  
_Expecto Patronum_ : shield made of a happy memory  
_Dissendium_ : to open the secret passage behind the statue of the one-eyed witch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again I'd like to thank all of you for reading and for all the love I've been receiving. I honestly don't know how I deserve this, but you guys really keep me motivated. Thank you all so much xx
> 
> I don't own anything, and took some descriptions literally from either the books, pottermore or harry potter wikia.
> 
> I don't own you either, but I'd say that's kind of obvious.


	25. What hides in a closet and lives under your bed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> x Third Year x
> 
> WARNING: this chapter has some triggering content and gore.

**Warning: triggering content, gore**

From that moment on, things got better. Your constant anger lessened drastically, your behaviour improved and you felt happy again. Especially since, one week later, Gallagher got to go home. You received permission to go home for two weekends to see him, but of course it couldn’t last. Instead, you two constantly wrote letters, talking about all kinds of stuff. He even wrote that Moody had told him of your ambition to become an Auror, and wrote that you didn’t have to worry about those things yet. He told you to focus on school, so you did. Very slowly your Potions were improving, but professor Slughorn assured you that the improvement itself was most important, not the rate at which you were doing so.

Your friends noticed your change of mood as well. You joked around more, pranked some people (all good of course, you kept it innocent enough), and hallelujah, you _laughed_ again! The Marauders were back on track, and everyone knew it.

There were two things however that _had_ visibly changed. Firstly, you spent more time in the library. You wanted to know as much as you could on subjects involving the Dark Arts. You didn’t exaggerate though; you still spent a lot of time with your friends, but let’s just say that if no-one had seen you, you were definitely in the library.

The second thing that had changed was your sleeping pattern. Nightmares of your injured brother sometimes plagued your sleep, after which you woke up in the middle of the night. Finding that you couldn’t rest anymore, you quietly snuck out of your room and into the boys’ dormitories. There you’d find rest with one of the boys, mostly Remus. He was the one who took care of you the same way you did with him. However, when he wasn’t there because of the full moon, you’d sleep with Sirius. None of them minded, none of them spoke about it since it was clear you didn’t want to, and you always made sure to be back in your room before anyone else woke up. They never even knew what you dreamt about. This only happened when you had had a bad day though, so usually once a week, and overall you slept well enough.

It was in this state that you went to your Defence Against the Dark Arts class with the others. It was mid-April, on a Thursday afternoon, and it was your last class of the day. When you walked in, the classroom was empty except for one big closet, standing in the middle in the room. Professor Jigger stood next it, waiting until you had all come in, after which he closed the door with a flick of his wand.

“Good afternoon everyone” he started. “Since last Friday and this Monday we have been talking about Boggarts, today we will actually put that knowledge into use. Do you all remember the spell we talked about?”

You all nodded.

“Okay, good! Now, for those who don’t but are too shy to say so; the spell is Ridikkulus. While saying this, you must think of a way to turn your greatest fear into something funny. Now remember; a boggart takes shape of what you fear most, so keep that in mind when you try to think of something funny.”

Your hand shot up.

“Yes, miss (l/n)?”

“What if you don’t know what your greatest fear is?” you asked.

“Try improvising. Just don’t let the fear take over you, and you’ll be fine. Know this; a boggart primarily means to scare you, not to harm you.”

You nodded in understanding.

“Any more questions? No? Then I would like you all to listen very carefully before we start. This lesson will be very intimate; your fellow students are going to face their greatest fears, and no matter what that fear is, you will respect them. There will be no teasing one another, and whatever happens in this classroom today, it stays in this classroom. Am I clear?”

“Yes, professor” you all replied.

“Very good! Okay then, everyone, form a line!” the professor said. Sirius and James went to stand in front, excited to try, whereas you, Peter and Remus and Lily stood somewhere in the middle of the line. James went first.

The closet opened, and a dense fog came out. It stayed on the ground for a second, until it started to move and take the shape of a hooded figure. It had white, bony hands and though you couldn’t properly see their face, red eyes seemed to be piercing you all from underneath the cloak. James raised his wand and said the spell. The figure tripped over its own cloak and fell on its face,  making a ridiculous ‘oomph’ sound. You all laughed, James clapped Sirius on the back, and went to stand on the side.

The figure looked at Sirius next, got up, and transformed. It didn’t change all that much really; the figure was still cloaked, but wore a mask this time and held out a wand. You thought you recognised him- it was definitely a boy- but couldn’t place him until he spoke. “Sirius” it said in an acknowledging tone. _Regulus_. “Ridikkulus” Sirius said, and the figure shrank. The boggart turned into what appeared to be Regulus when he had been a toddler, sitting on the ground, covered in chocolate. The sight was adorable and hilarious at the same time, and once more made you laugh. Sirius joined James at the side, letting a Hufflepuff girl step forward- the same on whose parchment you had doodled last year.

The boggart shifted into a swarm of wasps, buzzing angrily. She quickly said the spell as well, making the swarm fly synchronically while the Waltz of the Flowers was playing. You all laughed and she grinned, walking over to the other two while doing a slight pirouette on the way. You all clapped for her slight performance while the next girl, also a Hufflepuff, took her place.

Next, the wasps stopped dancing, and instead turned into darkness. A cold void spread over the room, but before it could reach her she uttered the spell and a light switched on. In the middle of the now not so dark void, there stood a funny looking man on a stool, having just pulled on a chain to turn on a light bulb. He looked at all of you, saw you staring, and let out a confused “What?”. As she walked over to the rest, Lily stood in front of the boggart.

A voice started shouting in the distance, but became clearer as the boggart changed form. A girl with blonde hair stood in front of her, shouting “You’re a freak, Lily! I hate you! I hate you, and your freak friends!! You’re a fre-“ “Ridikkulus.” The girl had turned into a cat, making the funniest screeching noises. Lily clasped her arms around herself in a comforting manner, but managed a smile anyway as she walked over to the rest.

Next up was Remus. It didn’t surprise you when the boggart turned into a full moon. He swiftly muttered the spell, making the moon turn into a balloon, flying around the room before it landed in front of him again. When he walked to the side, it was your turn.

You had no idea what to expect, but when the thing started to change, you felt an immediate sense of dread coming over you. Especially when it took its final shape.

_Oh._

_Oh no._

You thought you would have been able to handle this, but seeing the scene in front of you, you realised that you couldn’t. Not this.

In front of you stood Gallagher, hands clasping his stomach. Blood was pouring from between his fingers, but not only that. His entrails dangled down, were spread across the floor, and blood was spreading fast. You froze seeing the pain on his face, and your wand slipped from between your fingers.

_He was like this._

_This happened to him._

Those were the thoughts running through your head as you felt your breathing speeding up, seemingly not being able to get oxygen in your lungs anymore, and you fell to the ground. Tears rolled down your cheeks, and you didn’t even notice the hustle around you.

“For Merlin’s sake boys, give her some space” you vaguely heard a voice say. “Let me handle this.”

You didn’t recognise who it was that helped you up and brought you to the corridor, all you knew was that suddenly you were outside, slumped against the wall with an unfamiliar voice talking to you.

“Listen to me (y/n). It is (y/n), right?”  she said.

You tried to nod, and she must have understood.

“Nice to properly meet you, (y/n). My name is Marlene. (Y/n), I want you to breathe with me okay?”

You were curled up in a ball. Your lungs were aching, and your breathing sped up even more. Panic overwhelmed you, and you felt like you were going to pass out.

“Focus on me, (y/n), focus on my voice. It’s okay, I’m here with you. Breathe with me. Do you think you can do that?”

You nodded again.

“Okay, very good. Now breathe in-“ she slowly breathed in through her nose. You tried to mimic her, but your breaths were still a lot faster.

“-and out.” She slowly let out the air. Repeating this process several times, your lungs weren’t aching anymore, but your breath still wasn’t normal.

“Okay, (y/n), now talk to me. Tell me random things you know, anything at all. I’ll start, and then you can go, okay? Today is Thursday.”

“It’s April” you choked out.

“Very good” she encouraged you. “I’m a Hufflepuff.”

“I- I’m a Gryffindor.”

“That’s it, keep going” she smiled.

“The symbol of my house i-is a lion. M-my colours are red and gold. M-my favourite colour is (f/c). The common room i-is up in Gryffindor tower.” You whipped your tears and calmed down a little, but that sense of panic still hadn’t completely left, so you kept going. “I hate that. I don’t like stairs. I sometimes wish I could be a Hufflepuff, so that my common room would be close to the kitchens.”

“Wait, you know where the kitchens are?” Marlene asked.

“Yeah, they’re in the corridor to your common room. There’s a painting of a fruit basket. If you tickle the pear, a door handle appears. A house elf told me that once. It was after my first night here, I ran into her in the common room. Her name is Pommy, and she’s very nice. She keeps calling me ‘miss’, I think it’s cute. I like her. Even now I sometimes go to the kitchen to talk to her. And to get some food too of course, but I like how she talks to me. She’s kind.”

You stopped talking, wiping the last tears form your cheeks.

“Thank you” you muttered.

“That’s okay” she said. “It’s normal. Have you ever had a panic attack before?”

You shook your head. ‘ _So that’s what just happened_.’

“I have. They suck, but there are some tricks to get through them. Like forcing your breathing to calm down, and talking about random stuff. At least, that’s my experience.”

“This happen t’you often?”

“No, mostly during the exams.”

You kept on talking about all different kinds of stuff until you felt ready to go back inside. One thing was for sure: Marlene was one hell of a person, and you were immensely grateful she was there for you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was okay, right? Not too bad? I never know how to label these things ^_^'
> 
> I don't own anything, and took some descriptions literally from either the books, pottermore or harry potter wikia.
> 
> I don't own you either, but I'd say that's kind of obvious.


	26. The Help from a Hufflepuff

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> x Third Year x

You and Marlene were walking back to your common room; professor Jigger had said that you both needn’t continue the lesson, for you had faced one of the Darkest powers already that day.

“Man, you weren’t kidding” Marlene huffed. “you have to do all these stairs every day??”

“Yup. And the best part is: when you’re finally at the common room you have to more stairs to get to the dormitories.”

She laughed. “The brave and mighty Gryffindors, brought to their knees every day by their greatest, most ancient enemy; the stairs!”

“Are you laughing at us?” you asked incredulously.

She cackled. The sound bounced off the walls, sounding strangely pleasant. “I guess I am.”

Shock was all over your face. “YOU’RE A HUFFLEPUFF! Aren’t you supposed to be kind or something?! Here, carry my books- or better, I’ll carry the books, you carry me!”

You both burst out laughing. She fake fell down and yelled: “Aaaaah! They’ve beaten me! Quick, my brave Gryffindor!! Save me!!”

You laughed even more, and hadn’t quieted down yet when you - finally - reached the common room some minutes later. “Semper fortis” you said, still giggling a little.

“Could your password be anymore Gryffindor?”

“Could yours be anymore Hufflepuff?”

“We don’t have a password.”

“Exactly” you remarked as you crawled through the hole, making her giggle behind you.

“Nice” she commented her surroundings as she straightened up. “Not as cosy as ours, but it’s more… Dunno, mature? Like ours is butterbeer and yours is wine or something.”

“Nice description.”

“Thanks. I try” she said as you both dropped down on the couch in front of the fire. You fell into an easy conversation, talking about anything that came to mind, and had been talking about Hogsmeade when three figures suddenly blocked your view of her.

“(Y/N)!!”

“ARE YOU OKAY??”

“WHAT HAPPENED??”

“ARE YOU HURT??”

“I SWEAR TO MERLIN IF THAT BOGGART HURT YOU-“

“Ouch!” the three of them exclaimed as you pushed them off with Remus and Marlene’s help.

“Guys, we talked about this on the way here” Remus sighed.

“We’re just worried” Peter sighed as he rubbed his behind, sore from landing on the ground.

“I’m fine” you reassured them.

Remus sat down next to you – calmly, thank Merlin – and held out a small package. “Chocolate?” he offered.

“Ooh, yes please” you said and gratefully took some.

“Sharing is caring, Remus” Marlene replied on your other side, and he handed her some.

“Oi mate, how about us?” James said bewildered.

“Get your own” he grumbled, making you and Marlene laugh. You snuggled into the comforting  warmth that was the fuzz ball next to you and sighed contently.

After a minute of silence, Sirius spoke up. “So, you’re Marlene, right?”

“Yup” she said.

“Sirius.”

“James.”

“Peter.”

“I know who you are” she chuckled. “Everyone does.”

Sirius grinned. “Still nice to introduce, though.”

“It’s also nice to share your food with your friends, but nooo, …” James muttered under his breath, making you laugh.

“Aww, is Jamie dear hungry?”

“Shut up” he muttered.

“Poor Jamie dear” Remus sighed.

“Meanies” he pouted and got up. He stomped to the boys’ dormitories and mounted the stairs as he muttered what were probably profanities under his breath.

“I’ll go make sure he doesn’t eat all of _our_ food instead” Sirius sighed, got up and stalked after the hungry creature.

When they were up the stairs, you snuggled back into Remus’ side and nibbled your chocolate contently.

“Soooo, are you a couple, or…?” Marlene said, looking at you and Remus, making Remus stiffen, Peter go red with a speed that would have made Lily proud, and made you choke on your chocolate.

“What makes you say that??” Remus flushed as you were still coughing.

“Look at yourselves” she deadpanned, referring to your comfy position.

“Uhh” you stammered, and looked at Remus with an incredulous look on your face. True, you cuddled a lot, but he was just a friend!

“(Y/n), I hope you already know this” he said slowly, “but you’re like a sister to me. Purely platonic.”

“Oh thank goodness” you sighed and immediately relaxed again. “Yeah, you’re kind of like a brother to me, nothing more.”

He nodded, and you snuggled back into his side. Marlene laughed.

“Be careful, you two. Before you know it people will start rumours.”

“Pfsh, then Remus should get a date or something and put an end to them” you muttered.

“Hey, why should I find a date?” he protested.

“Because I don’t want to. Besides, you’re melting hearts everywhere already.”

“Wha- I’m not! And I don’t want to either! How about you ask someone! Frank maybe?”

“Longbottom?” Marlene inquired.

“Yeah, him. Why not?”

“Because Frank is _obviously_ smitten with Alice.”

“How about Regulus?” Peter asked. “You two get along, right?”

“We talk a bit every now and then” you shrugged. “But that doesn’t mean I like him. And even if I liked him and by some strange coincidence he would like me back, I’m a ‘mudblood’, remember?”

Marlene cringed. “I never knew Regulus was such an arse.”

“He isn’t” you defended him, “his ideals are all messed up, but that’s how he was raised. If he were raised by other people, or if he would get away from those bad influences, he would be a cool kid. He already is actually, except then the ‘messed up morality’ part.”

“Sirius ended up just fine” Peter protested.

You shrugged. “The exception that proves the rule. Hey I’m not justifying the wat he looks at blood status, I’m just saying that other than that part of his personality, he’s kinda sweet. At least, he is to me.”

You remained silent for a while until Remus spoke up.

“Is it me, or have those two been suspiciously silent?” he said as he glanced at the stairs.

“Hmm, you’re right, normally you can hear them shouting form here” you said, narrowing your eyes.

He and Peter got up. “We’ll go take a look” the latter said, and they left. You and Marlene talked a little more, until a horrible shriek sounded from upstairs.

“MY GELLY SLUGS!!” Peter howled.

“I WAS HUNGRY OKAY” James replied.

“SIRIUS YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO STOP HIM NOT JOIN HIM” Remus barked.

“HE MADE ME HUNGRY TOO, IT’S NOT MY FAULT!! HE’S LIKE THE DEVIL!!”

“HEY!!”

“THEN HOW ABOUT YOU GO TO THE BLOODY KITCHEN NEXT TIME??! WE PAID FOR THOSE!”

“BUT THE KITCHEN IS SO FAR AWAY” he whined.

Meanwhile, you and Marlene were on the floor laughing, until you realised…

“JAMES POTTER AND SIRIUS BLACK IF I GET UP THERE AND MY PIXIE PUFFS ARE GONE I SWEAR TO MERLIN I WILL TIE YOU TO THE WHOMPING WILLOW AND RELEASE TEN BLUDGERS AT THE SAME TIME AND IT WONT. BE. PRETTY!! DO YOU HEAR ME?! DO YOU HEAR ME??!!”, followed by a frantic rustling upstairs.

As Marlene sat bewildered in the couch looking at where you had just disappeared up the stairs, a new voice caught her off guard.

“Yes, they’re always like this” Lily sighed from the doorway.

~ What’s this? What’s this? It’s covered everywhere! What’s this? A time skip’s in the air! ~

You, Mary, Remus and Marlene were hanging out on the grounds; finals were over, and tomorrow you would leave Hogwarts. You four had already packed, but of course James, Peter and Sirius hadn’t.

You threw some toast to the Giant Squid. “I can’t believe the year is already over” you muttered.

“I know” Remus sighed. “It’s strange; we’re almost halfway there.”

“Stop it guys” Marlene said. “You’re freaking me out.”

“Yeah,” Mary added, “we’ve only just finished our third year. Stop talking like that.”

“Talking like what?” a voice said behind you. As you turned around, you saw Lily and Severus standing there.

“Hey Lil’s” you greeted. “Hey Severus.”

“Hi guys” she said, and Severus greeted you as well – perhaps a little strained when it came to Remus. * _Ahem understatement cough*_

“So, what were you talking about?” she asked sitting down as well.

Mary shrugged. “(Y/n) and Remus were merely freaking us out with the fact that we’re almost halfway when it comes to being here.”

Lily laughed. “Don’t you guys worry about that, we’ve still got all the time we want.”

“Thank Helga for that” Marlene huffed. “I haven’t got the slightest idea of what I want to do later. The more time I’ve got the better.”

“You have to know what you want to do before sixth year” Remus said. “You have to take your owls and newts, remember?”

Marlene groaned as she laid back on the grass. “Poomp…”

“Oh come on” you giggled, “you must have _some_ idea of what you want to do?”

“Not everyone is like you, (y/n)” Severus said. “You’re one of the few who already know what they want to do later – and that is mostly because of ‘special circumstances’.”

“M’kay I get what you mean” you shrugged. “But still, you can already have _some_ idea of how you want your life to be?”

“Nope.”

“None.”

“No.”

“Sorry, none.”

…

“Mary?” you asked, turning to her in a final attempt of making a point, since she was the only one who hadn’t answered.

“Well, I’m not really sure if it qualifies” she muttered, “but I guess I always wanted to see France.”

“That counts!” you cheered.

“It doesn’t” Marlene said.

“It _so_ does! It’s an idea of her future, therefore it counts!”

“Does not!”

“Does too!”

“SO YOu were talking about France?” Lily intervened in order to avoid the upcoming argument.

Mary shrugged. “Yeah, it seems nice.”

“They eat snails” Marlene deadpanned, making you laugh.

“I always wanted to see Italy” Lily mused. “I think Rome and Vatican City have to be beautiful. The church really did some great things when it came to architecture-“

You snorted. “Yeah, their holy-water fonts are really nice, especially on the inside.”

When you noticed them looking at you with strange looks, you bit your tongue. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to offend you.”

“What do you mean?” Lily asked.

“Dunno, just, if what I said was mean then I’m sorry-“

“Not that, the holy water thing” she said.

You frowned. “I was raised at an orphanage, remember?”

“Yeah, but what does that have to do with anything?” Marlene chimed in.

A confused look spread across your face. Had you never told them about your time there? Now that you thought about it, you realised that you never had. “Oh, uhm, they were pretty religious, I guess? I mean, not catholic but Anglican, sure, but still…”

The three girls still looked confused, but realisation quickly dawned on the faces of Remus and Severus. “They abused you” the latter stated.

“Well, no, I wouldn’t really call it abuse-“

“What did they do to you?” Remus asked.

You swallowed nervously, looking down to the ground. You were torn between sadness and anger whenever you thought of that place. “Well, when they found out about me, she pushed my head in a fond of holy water.” Shock spread across their faces. “S-she dragged me to the chapel by my hair, tried an exorcism on me.” You rubbed your hands. “It was only once, and sure, they called me names, but it wasn’t-“

“(Y/n)” Remus stopped you. “Once is enough. _Name-calling_ is enough. Verbal abuse is a thing too, you know. You ran away when you were eleven years old so that you could be happy; that says something about you, but about them as well.”

You kept your eyes to the ground, plucking at the grass beneath you. You felt a presence next to you and a slender arm being slung around your shoulders.

“You deserved better” Lily said quietly. She was right, you _had_ deserved better. A flare of bitterness took over for a second, but you quickly pushed it down. Lily’s arm around you reminded you that you were okay, you were happy, had great friends and family, and that sorry excuse for a human being would never have any say over you again.

“Thanks guys” you muttered, blinking rapidly. You had cried too much already over this woman, you’d be hexed if you’d do so again.

“How old were you?” Mary asked.

“Six” you muttered. “I accidentally smashed a vase without touching it.”

“That’s horrible” she gasped.

You shrugged. “It wasn’t that bad, the bloody thing was fugly...”

A small moment passed before you all simultaneously burst out laughing.

Bitterness and sorrow for now forgotten, you stayed with your friends until the next day, when you left King’s Cross with your father and brother to go home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry it took me this long, but, y'know, finals... :/ I start in a week, wish me luck! ^_^
> 
> I don't own anything, and took some descriptions literally from either the books, pottermore or harry potter wikia.
> 
> I don't own you either, but I'd say that's kind of obvious.


	27. Nimbus 1001

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> x Summer x

You were at Flourish and Blotts in Diagon Alley, browsing through the new books that had come in during your time at Hogwarts. What surprised you was that there were no muggle novels anymore, whereas the years before, there had been quite the collection.

“Miss Blotts?” you asked the old woman behind the counter.

“Yes deary?” she smiled.

“Are there no muggle novels anymore?”

The smile ran from her face. She looked around, and quickly ushered you into the back room.

“Now don’t you talk about no muggle novels in my shop” she whispered, uneasy look on her face. “I had to take them off my shelves some months ago.”

You frowned.

“But don’t worry, I didn’t throw them out” she hushed. “Those poor books, I couldn’t bring myself to burning them.” She turned to an old, dusty mirror behind her that hung on the wall. Taking it off, she revealed a dusty hole, in which around fifty books were hidden. “Here, you can take a look” she said, and you stepped forward.

“Any recommendations?” you asked in a hushed tone as well, as you turned to look at her again.

She thought for a moment, and then took one out of the back of the pile.

“ _Pride and Prejudice_ ” you read out loud.

She nodded. “People tend to see it as rather sentimental, but I can assure you; it is not. Quite the contrary, actually, Jane Austen was rather Augustan herself.”

You nodded. “Sounds good. How much?”

She shook her head. “You can have it. I need to get them out of my shop as quickly as possible, I don’t want to get into trouble with any Death Eater.”

“I didn’t realise it had gotten this bad?” you asked.

“I’m not surprised” she said sadly. “Hogwarts is out of the Death Eaters’ reach, but here… Just make sure you get home safely.”

“Miss Blotts, I live just at the end of the street” you said incredulously.

“No deary; you live at the end of _Diagon Alley_. Folks here aren’t as kind as they used to be.”

You frowned. “But, it’s going to get better, right?”

She sighed as she looked at her books. “I hope so, miss (l/n), I truly do…”

After that, you transfigured your book like the Daily Prophet, and walked back home. Now that you paid attention to it, you saw that she was right. The first indication was that, despite the warm weather, there were no children standing at Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlour.

( **AN: that was a ridiculously unreal sentence to write when there’s snow outside.)**

Seeing that mister Fortescue stood there with a frown on his face, you walked over to him.

“Hello sir” you greeted warmly.

A smile spread on his face. “What can I get you?” he asked.

“Mint and chocolate please. And then one with melon and lemon, please.”

He chuckled. “You hungry there?”

“No” you laughed, “dad’s been working all day, and though he’d never admit it, he’s fond of ice cream.”

He chuckled again. “You take care of that old man of yours” he said as you gave him the money and he handed you the two treats.

“I will, thank you!”

You walked home in a hasty manner; your ice creams were melting _fast_.

“Hey dad” you said as you walked into the shop, and handed him the ice cream.

He sighed. “These aren’t healthy, you know.”

“Yeah, but they’re so _good_ ” you grinned, making him smile.

“Weren’t you out to get a new book?”

“Yeah, but it’s a muggle book, and madam Blotts advised me to transfigure it into this” you said as you held out the newspaper.

“(Y/n)! You _know_ you aren’t allowed to use spells outside of school!”

“But _daaaaad_ ” you whined, “they aren’t even able to know it was _me_! They just know a transfiguration spell happened in the shop, but that’s all! James never gets into trouble either, they just assume it are his parents who do all the magic!”

“That’s no excuse” he said sternly.

“Yes dad” you muttered, shuffling your feet.

“Good. Now tell me, did you _really_? All by yourself? I knew you are good at Transfiguration, but this-“ he said as he picked up the newspaper, “this is marvellous! Oh look, moving pictures and everything!”

You grinned as you licked your ice cream. The proud look on his face truly made your day.

~ Time skip to the year 3000, not much has changed but they live under water, and you great great great granddaughter is pretty fine ~

“Hey dad?” you asked during breakfast a week later.

“Yes sweetie?”

“Can I have a broom?”

He choked on his coffee. You waited as he coughed, and a minute later he said; “What do you want a broom for??”

You shrugged. “I want to join the quidditch team this year; Wood just finished his last year, and James says I have a nice shot of becoming their beater.”

“A- _beater_? Isn’t that a dangerous position?”

“Of course not! In fact, it’s the safest! Unlike the other players, I have a bat to defend myself!”

He sighed. “You just have a tendency for getting into trouble, don’t you?”

You laughed. “Like you hadn’t figured that out before.”

He grumbled under his breath. “Don’t they have brooms at your school?”

“Yeah, but they are sooooo slooooooow” you moaned. “Dad, pleeeaaaaaaase? Pretty please? Pretty pretty please? Please with a cherry on top? Please with-”

“All right, fine, I’ll get you a broom!”

“YAY! Thanks dad! Come on, let’s go” you jumped up, and started dragging him by the arm.

“Wha- now??”

“Yes, now!” you grinned.

“You still have to finish your breakfast!”

“There’s time for breakfast later, right now, Broomstix awaits!”

“Wait, Broomstix? Why not Second Hand Brooms?”

“That question pretty much answers itself, dad” you deadpanned.

He sighed. “You _do_ realise you’ll have to work more in the shop to pay me back, right?”

“Of course I do” you grinned.

You dragged him through the shop, through the Alley and to the shop. He couldn’t help but chuckle. As you walked inside, you smiled instantly. Brooms in different styles were everywhere, and your eyes sparkled with amazement.

“So,” your father started, “where do we start-“

“THAT ONE” you exclaimed with sparkles in your eyes as you hurried over to a broom on a stand next to the counter. “It’s so- wow- nice and shiny- so sleek- and that _colour-_ , dad, have you ever seen such beautiful wood before?? Oh, _please_ , can I have that one? Please, please, pretty please?”

The man behind the counter chuckled. “Your daughter has taste, mister Ollivander. That’s a Nimbus 1001, the 1000 came out seven years ago, and this one was launched just a couple of months back.”

Your father sighed. “I take it it’s expensive then?”

“Well, it surely isn’t cheap” the man laughed. “But perhaps we can arrange this; my twins are growing up and they’ll be needing their wands soon. You help me out with those, and I’ll tweak the price a bit.”

“And,” you added, “this can be my Christmas _and_ birthday present this year!”

He looked at you, doubt written on his face, but you both knew you practically already owned the broom. “I swear to Merlin you’re more trouble than Gallagher ever was…” he sighed as he reached for his wallet.

“YAY! Thanks dad!” you said and ran up to hug him.

Not long after you were back home admiring your new broom. “Hey dad, mind if I go over to James’ place to test it? They’ve got this big field behind their house where we play Quidditch.”

“If it’s all right with them then I don’t mind. But don’t forget that tomorrow you start helping out in the shop again” he said.

“Great! Thanks dad!”

You quickly whipped out your wand, cast your Patronus and sent it off towards James to ask if you could come over.

“(Y/n) what did I tell you using magic outside of school??” your father barked making you cackle.

“Something about it being somewhat illegal?”

“No magic allowed! Even if it’s an absolutely stunning Patronus and you have no idea how proud that makes me and I’m still surprised you’re not a Ravenclaw- but that’s beside the point!”

“But _daaaaaaad,_ a letter takes so long!!”

Whatever reply he wanted to make was cut off by a silver glowing stag appearing in the kitchen. “Of course you can come over, why aren’t you here yet? Padfoot is here as well!” it rang out, and disappeared seconds after.

“Well, that’s my cue!” you said, jumping up, grabbing your broom and running to the fireplace in your small living room.

“Dinner’s at six thirty!” your dad called out after you.

“See you then” you called back before disappearing into the fire place.

You stumbled into the living room of the Potters’, immediately greeted by James and Sirius.

“Hello boys” you grinned and hugged them both.

“I- is that-“ James stammered, looking at your broom.

“A- NIMBUS 2001??” Sirius finished. He started laughing, while James just stood there with an incredulous look on his face. “Bloody hell Prongs, that’s even faster than yours!”

“I have _got_ to get me one” he muttered.

“Correction; you want _us_ to get one _for_ you” a voice piped up behind him. “Hello (y/n).”

“Hi Mrs. Potter” you waved with a smile.

“Mum, can I have one? Please?”

“No.”

“But-“

She looked at him with raised eyebrows, successfully cutting him off. “James Potter you did _not_ just ‘but’ me.”

“No mum” he muttered. “Sorry mum.”

“That’s what I thought” she huffed. “(Y/n) sweetie are you stating for dinner this evening?”

“Thank you, but no. I promised my dad I’d be home at six thirty” you said, smile still on your face. The fact that Sirius was still trying to stifle his laughter didn’t help either.

“Very well, have fun!” she said and disappeared into the hallway.

The three of you didn’t waste any time on rushing outside. It was a beautiful day, perfect weather for flying, and James and Sirius’ brooms were already there. As they went to their brooms you already kicked off, and were shocked by how fast you went up.

“BLOODY HELL” you shouted as you were sent soaring. Within a matter of seconds you were forty feet high. “JAAAAMES! SIRIUUUUUUUS!!”

“Merlin’s beard (y/n) that was fast!” James said as he and Sirius flew up to meet you.

“No kidding!” you said with a bewildered grin on your face. “Okay, let’s see how she flies…”

You gently leaned forward and started moving slowly, but quickly accelerated to a higher speed. You had a full-blown grin on your face as you felt James trying to catch up with you. His Nimbus 1000 wasn’t bad, but you already had a head start, and once you had gained full speed he didn’t stand a chance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *sigh* wellll this sucks... Sorry that it took so long; I finished my exams a week ago but writing just didn't go well.  
> Sorry for this chapter, I know it sucks. Next one will be better ;)
> 
> Thank you for reading, and I would like to thank all of you once more for the love and support! ^_^
> 
> I don't own anything, and took some descriptions literally from either the books, pottermore or harry potter wikia.
> 
> I don't own you either, but I'd say that's kind of obvious.


	28. Beat it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> x Fourth year x

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow I suck.  
> Sorry for the wait.

“RREEEEEMMMMYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!”

Your cry filled the entire platform as you sprinted towards your friend. As soon as you reached him, you threw your arms around his neck.

“Hello (y/n)” he said with a small smile, and hugged back. You didn’t have to ask why he was so solemn; the first of September 1974 was, you guessed it right, a full moon. Don’t believe me? Look it up. Poor Remmy poo.

After a long hug – _‘Shut up Marlene, it’s completely platonic’ –_ you let go and helped him get his luggage into the compartment.

“(Y/n), I’m ill, not dying” he chuckled.

“Yeah yeah, I know, but still. I’m trying to be nice here. So, how was your summer?”

“Pretty good” he said. As he started to talk about his vacation, he moved to pick up your bags.

“GENTLE WITH THAT ONE” you cried out as he started moving your trolley.

Your father, who had finally caught up with you and was holding your broom, asked “What for? I don’t recall you having something fragile with you?”

“It- uhm, it has, uh- my- my wand polishing set! Yeah, that’s it, Gosh, I lost the word there for a second. No no, just my wand polishing set. I don’t want the bottles with wand polish to break, because, you know, uhm- my clothes would get all dirty and- stuff. Yeah.”

“Ah yes of course” your father smiled, and put your broom with the rest of your luggage. You sweat dropped. _‘I can’t believe he actually bought that…’_

“Soo, what’s actually in there?” Remus whispered.

“Dungbombs. And a whole _lot_ of them.”

“Right” he whispered, and straightened up again. It wasn’t long after that James and Peter joined you on the platform. You even spotted Lily, Severus, Mary, Frank and Alice. You’d waved to them, knowing you’d talk to them later. The only ones you hadn’t seen yet were-

“Sirius and Marlene?” Peter said.

“Yeah, I was wondering where they were as well” you said, but he shook his head.

“N- no, I mean, they’re right _there_ , together.”

Your eyes followed the direction in which his were looking, and you quickly saw them sauntering over. Sirius had his arm around her shoulders, and they were seemingly laughing at a joke he had just made.

The four of you stared at them, bewildered. “Did I miss something, or…?” you asked.

“Nope, this is new for me as well” Remus said.

James frowned. “I knew they met a few times during the summer, but I didn’t know they were, y’know, _together_.”

You shrugged. “I don’t think they told any of us.”

As they reached you, they finally stopped laughing. “Hey guys” Sirius said, amusement still evident in his voice. Marlene greeted you as well.

“Hey there, lovebirds” you grinned. “I’m taking it we’ve missed out on some juicy news?”

They both snickered. “Yeah,” Marlene said, “we’ve been seeing each other during the summer, and now, well…”

“We’ve hooked up” Sirius finished. Peter grew red, and Sirius barked a laugh. “Not like that, Peter! Merlin, get your head out of the gutter!”

The six of you laughed, Peter muttering a ‘sorry’ between giggles.

“Well then, let me be the first to congratulate you guys” you grinned.

“Hey! I wanted to do that!” James whined.

“Should’ve been sooner then, slug.”

“OI!”

“Let’s just get your stuff on the train, yeah?” Remus sighed as you and James started bickering once more.

~ Sanji: “I HAVE A TIMESKIP FOR YOU, READER-CHWAAAAAANN~ <3 <3 <3 <3” ~

After all the talking and catching up you’d done with everyone, you were ready for bed. Seriously. You just wanted to lay down your head, close your eyes, and not be bothered. But _nooooo,_ of course Lily and Mary had other plans. It had started with light-hearted talking, the occasional giggle and gossiping, but after a while turned to another subject. One that- ironically enough- had been discussed exactly one year earlier.

“So, are you okay?” Lily asked, turning to you.

You raised your eyebrow. “Yeah, why shouldn’t I be?”

“Well, it’s just, with Sirius now dating Marlene…” Mary said with a sad voice.

“Ooooh no, no no no, you’re not doing this again” you said, shaking your head.

“(Y/n)-“

“No! Bad Evans! Bad MacMillan! I. Do. Not. Like Sirius! Merlin’s beard, what’s wrong with you guys? They’re cute together! Leave ‘em be!”

“Okay, okay! No need to get so defensive!” Lily sighed, raising her hands in surrender. “We were just worried.”

“No need to be” you said curtly. “They’re my _friends_ , and I’m one hundred percent okay with them being together.”

“Okay, if you say so” Mary shrugged.

You grumbled under your breath and crawled into bed. Why did they keep insisting that you liked him more than a friend? Couldn’t they see that there was nothing between the two of you? You were absolutely certain you didn’t like him. Completely certain. The only reason why you felt a bit down was that neither Marlene nor Sirius told you they were dating, even though you were friends with both of them. But that was okay, it stung a little, but it was nothing to be upset about. With that in mind, you fell asleep.

The next morning at breakfast, you all received your timetables. All except Remus of course, he was still in the hospital wing. James, Peter and Sirius were still eating when you decided to get up.

“Where are you going?” James asked, mouth filled with eggs and bacon.

“Going to give Moony his time table” you said, “and then get my books. I’ll see you guys at Herbology, yeah?” Not waiting for a reply – their mouths were full and you’d rather not be covered in spit – you turned around and left.

The three boys stared at your retreating form.

“Is it me, or does she seem… I dunno…” James started.

“A bit down?” Peter said. The other two made noises of agreement, and shared a look.

“I wonder what it’s about” Sirius said, “she’s normally always in such a good mood to be back at Hogwarts.”

“Maybe she’s stressing out about making the team?” James tried. “She really wants to be a beater.”

“Sure, that’s probably it.”

The Quidditch try-outs were a week later on a Sunday afternoon. Needless to say, the Marauders were there to cheer you on. Lily, Mary and Marlene were there as well. James was on the field with the rest of the team, trying his very best not to show his preference for you. Key word: trying. He failed miserably. The other two students trying out didn’t seem to mind though, especially since James wasn’t the one to make the final call on who would join the team. They were both older than you; Dirk Creswell was one year older than you, and Bertha Jorkins two. It made you worry a bit, since they were older they would probably have more experience too.

“Nah, don’t worry about it” Sirius said as you voiced your concerns. “Cresswell’s only one year older, and even though Jorkins’ age might be a plus, she’s not the brightest. To be a beater, you need brains to be at the right place at the right time.”

“Rude, much?” Remus muttered next to him.

Sirius raised his hands up in surrender. “I’m just saying, our girl’s got nothing to be scared about.”

“Yean (y/n),” Peter said on your left, “you’ll do great!”

And great, you did. After seeing you fly, it was a surprise to no one that you were chosen. Not only did you have a great swing, you also had a great coordination with the rest of the team. (It helped that James and Alice were friends of course). The other two contestants congratulated you, and after you’d gotten dressed again the boys ran up to you to congratulate you, followed not long after by the girls.

“(Y/n)! You were amazing!” Peter gushed with sparkles in his eyes.

“Yeah! You were so cool!” Marlene added.

“Aww, thanks guys” you smiled.

“GROUP HUG!”

“NononooooSirius Don’t-!!”

Your attempts were futile; seven people jumped you, yes even Lily and Mary, and the result was a huge doggy pile in the middle of the Quidditch field. Peter, Sirius, James and Marlene cackled, and you groaned.

“Oh hush,” Remus whispered in your ear from where he lied beside you, “you know he’s just doing this so that James can hug Lily.”

As to prove his point James giggled like a little kid, followed by a “Potted hands off” by the annoyed redhead.

“Worth it” the boy grinned.

“Um, guys” you started, “not that I don’t appreciate the love and affection, but I can’t breathe.”

“Oh, right.”

…

“That means you have to _move_ , James.”

“I know.”

“GET OFF!”

“Need some help there?” you heard Alice snicker from a few feet away.

“If you don’t mind” you groaned.

But instead of feeling the weight lessen, you felt another person join.

“GODDAMNIT ALICE!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the kudos I've received! They mean a lot and are treasured deeply!
> 
> I don't own anything, and took some descriptions literally from either the books, pottermore or harry potter wikia.  
> I don't own you either, but I'd say that's kind of obvious.


End file.
